The University of Utah swim and dive team began the 2026 Big 12 Conference Championships at the Greensboro Aquatic Center with strong performances in both men’s and women’s diving team events, securing gold medals in each.
Kathryn Grant, Callie Eaglestone, and Emilia Nilsson Garip won the women’s team event with a score of 312.55. The men’s team, consisting of Elias Petersen, Alex Just, and Attila Bernatsky, finished first with a score of 371.95, setting a new program record that surpassed last season’s mark.
Head diving coach Richard Marschner commented on the team’s achievements: “What a really exciting night with it coming down to the final dive for both the men and the women. It is absolutely amazing to see the team believing in themselves and doing what I know they have always been capable of. Seeing it all come together is pretty magical, it was awesome.”
Utah maintained top-three positions early in both events and secured victories through key dives in the sixth round. In the women’s event, Grant delivered a score of 64.00 in the final round to move Utah ahead of TCU by 0.30 points. On the men’s side, Petersen’s 60.00 on 1-meter helped Utah enter the final round in first place; Just then scored 80.00 points on platform to ensure victory.
Marschner added: “It is a lot of pressure standing up there on 10-meter about to hurl yourself off, and both Alex and Kathryn came through. Everybody dove extraordinarily well, it is fun to see people step up for their team and I’m excited for what we’re going to do individually.
“This was a couple of special wins for me personally,” he continued. “This team event is something I’ve been working on for a long time with the NCAA and trying to get this as a scoring event for the divers, so it’s really awesome to win and to come through in the clutch.”
In swimming events, Nick Chirafisi, Tim Rogersson, Finn Winkler, and Evan VanBrocklin earned bronze in the 800 Freestyle Relay with a time of 6:17:20—breaking Utah’s previous program record set at last year’s championships. Chirafisi also broke his own school record in the 200 Free during his leadoff leg with a time of 1:33.63.
Head coach Jonas Persson said: “The guys put on a great show and it equaled a school record for the relay and a record for Nick leading off. I’m very happy with how the guys performed out there, and we have three of those four guys back next year so I think they are just going to continue getting better and better and hopefully put us in a really nice position.”
After day one, Utah holds second place overall with 168 points—12 points behind Arizona State—as competition continues Wednesday at Greensboro Aquatic Center with preliminaries beginning at 8 a.m. MT and finals at 3:15 p.m. MT; both sessions will be streamed live on ESPN+.
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