The University of Utah swim and dive team concluded its participation at the 2026 Big 12 Conference Championships in Greensboro, North Carolina, on Saturday. The event ended with the team earning two medals: a gold for Nick Chirafisi in the 1650-yard freestyle and a bronze for the men’s 400-yard freestyle relay.
“We finished the meet very strong with a conference champion and a third place on a relay on the men’s side,” said head coach Jonas Persson. “I was very happy how the men were able to finish strong and get the job done and they really solidified the third place. We’re only gonna get better next year, so I’m excited.
“On the women’s side, we had a pretty decent last day and put down some nice personal bests. We’re happy with our efforts and how we were able to hold our own for the meet.”
The Utah men’s team secured third place out of seven teams, finishing with 1,305 points after competing closely with Arizona throughout the week. The women’s team placed seventh among ten teams, scoring 693 points.
In diving, Kathryn Grant and Callie Eaglestone reached the finals in women’s platform diving, contributing to what head diving coach Richard Marschner described as an impressive week for his athletes.
“We didn’t have the perfect ending we were hoping for you, but I can’t overstate how proud I am to be Kathryn and Callie’s coach, and this whole team in general put on an absolute show,” Marschner said. “Sometimes winning championships takes a little bit of luck, but it doesn’t take luck being in the final time after time after time and giving yourself an opportunity to compete for that, and we really did that the whole week. That says something about the team and who we are tjan [than] the occasional win because we just show up every time.
“I’m so proud of what they did. We still have more to go we’ve got zones coming up and hopefully NCAAs after that. We’re not done yet and I think the best is yet to come.”
Eighteen Utah swimmers advanced to finals during Saturday’s preliminaries across various events. Notable performances included Stephanie Oiesen and Megan Legarth advancing to bonus finals in women’s 200 backstroke; Brandon Miller and Nash Hale reaching consolation finals in men’s 200 backstroke; Isabella Riso placing 15th in women’s 100 freestyle; Davis Stachelek reaching consolation finals in men’s 100 freestyle; Rylee McColley leading Utah women into consolation finals of 200 breaststroke; Caleb Gallagher placing 12th in men’s 200 breaststroke; as well as Grant and Eaglestone both making platform diving finals.
In final results, Chirafisi took gold in his event with a time of 14:52.65 while Jones Lambert finished seventh (15:14.01) and Quinn Jones placed tenth (15:15.36). The men’s relay team—Evan VanBrocklin, Tim Rogersson, Finn Winkler, and Stachelek—earned bronze by finishing their race in 2:53.45 behind Arizona State’s NCAA record-setting performance.
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