Nick Soedel leaps into the pool as the first leg of the men’s 200-yard freestyle
relay on Friday.
Karina Puikkonen / The Daily Utah Chronicle

The Utah men held their last regular season meet at the Ute Natatorium during the weekend against the USC Trojans, the fourth-ranked team in the country. The Utes came up short in the two-day event, losing 183-102.

Despite the loss, Utah head coach Greg Winslow was proud of his team’s efforts in both swimming and diving. At this point in the season, it can be easy to look toward the conference championships, but Winslow said it spoke a lot of his team’s character that the athletes showed up both mentally and physically ready to compete.

“While we need to fine tune a few more things, I’m happy with our guys and what their times told us,” Winslow said of the swimmers. “They’ve earned some time off.”

Utah’s 400-free relay squad of Bjorn Gunnarsson, Kristian Kron, Jonas Holmstroem and Nick Soedel brought home the Utes’ only swim win with a time of 2:58:49, just .03 seconds short of their season-best time for the event.

The only individual diving win came from Josiah Purss, who took first in the 3-meter dive with a score of 375.9. Jacob Crayne came in a close second with a score of 372.3. Caleb Herrick led the Utes on the 1-meter event with a 319.65 score, good enough for second. Crayne took third place and Nelson Foo came in fourth.

“Our divers this year have really been on their mark,” Winslow said. “These finishes they’re having in competition really show the hard work they put in. It’s well deserved.”

Although no Ute swimmers were able to capture individual first-place finishes, Bence Kiraly touched second in both the 200-meter and 200 fly. Kristian Kron also grabbed a second-place finish in the 200 free and Ian Walker took second in the 100 back.

The Utes will now look forward to the Pac-12 Championships. The women’s event will be held in Washington this week and the men’s will take place next week. The NCAA Championships will take place at the end of March.