Women's Swimming | 11/3/2022 4:55:00 PM

Utah Tech continues its 2022-23 season this Saturday morning as the Trailblazers head to sunny San Diego for a dual meet at San Diego State. The meet will begin at 10 a.m. (PT), at the SDSU Aztec Aquaplex. 
 
UT COACHING STAFF: Dan Kesler is in his second season as head coach of the Utah Tech women's swimming program. 
Coach Kesler came to St. George after two years as associate head men's and women's swimming coach at Florida State. While at FSU, he worked with the middle distance and stroke groups, and helped lead both Seminole programs to fifth-place finishes at the ACC Championships last spring.
            Prior to his time in Tallahassee, he had a seven-year stint as an assistant coach at Arizona State (2012-19), where he worked with the distance and middle distance groups while serving as the recruiting coordinator. Kesler spent his final four years working under FSU alum Bob Bowman – who is best known for coaching the most decorated Olympian of all-time, Michael Phelps.
            Kesler began his collegiate coaching career at Division II Wingate University, at which he served five years as the top assistant men's and women's swimming coach overseeing the mid-distance and distance swimmers. Kesler also served on the NCAA D-II top-25 poll selection committee for the 2011-2012 season. While at Wingate, he helped lead the men's team to five-straight Bluegrass Mountain Conference championship titles, and to several top-six finishes at the NCAA Division II national championship meets.
Following a stellar high school career, Kesler swam collegiately at North Carolina State from 2000-03, where he served as team captain as a junior and was an ACC finalist in the distance events.
A native of Westminster, Md., Kesler was also a 2000 Olympic Trials qualifier while representing Green Terror (MD) Aquatic Club.
Coach Kesler is joined poolside by first-year assistant coach Hailey Garlich.

LAST TIME OUT: Utah Tech swimming collected five event wins in its season opening dual meet at WAC opponent Northern Colorado back on Oct. 21, inside the UNC Butler-Hancock Pool in Greeley.
            Freshman Lily Magda, in her first collegiate meet, accounted for two of the Trailblazers' five wins. Magda set the tone for the Blazers as she won the first individual race of the night, the 1,000-yard freestyle, with an 11-second victory in an altitude-adjusted time of 10:30.08, which is the third-fastest time in UT program history.
Magda then followed that up by winning the 500 free by nearly five seconds with an altitude-adjusted time of 5:10.40.
Utah Tech would sweep the top-three spots in the 100 back, led by junior Eleonore Rembert with an event-winning time of 57.33 (altitude adjusted; #6 all-time at UT) in her Blazer debut. Fellow junior Pia Murray touched the wall in second (57.45 – altitude adjusted; #7 all-time at UT), and sophomore Ally Boynton placed third (59.06 – altitude adjusted).
The trio repeated the feat in the 200 back, this time with Murray touching the wall first in a time of 2:04.13 (altitude adjusted; #5 all-time at UT). Rembert wound up second at 2:08.02 (altitude adjusted) and Boynton followed closely in third at 2:08.12 (altitude adjusted). 
The Trailblazers final event win of the meet came in the 200 IM, where junior Ginevra Molinocollected her first win as a Blazer with a time of 2:09.80 (altitude adjusted). In addition, sophomore Reese Hazan clocked the sixth-fastest time in the 200 fly in program history in her UT debut with a runner-up 2:09.66 (altitude-adjusted). 
 
NEXT UP FOR THE TRAILBLAZERS: Utah Tech will close out the 2022 team portion of its season slate by hosting the Second-Annual Trailblazer Invitational, which will be held Nov. 17-21, at the UT HPC Pool.