Women's Swimming | 10/11/2023 11:09:00 AM

Utah Tech's 2023-24 season gets off the blocks this Friday afternoon as the Trailblazers travel to sunny southern California for a two-team dual at San Diego. The meet will begin at 2 p.m. (PT), at the USD Sports Center Pool. 
 
COACHING STAFF: Utah Tech alumnus Shawn King was named the fourth head coach for the Utah Tech women's swimming program this past August 19. 
            Coach King, who also served as an assistant coach with the Trailblazer program during the 2020-21 season, arrived back at his alma mater after spending the past two years as an assistant men's and women's swim coach at BYU. While with the Cougars' program, he served as the distance coach and the men's team recruiting coordinator.
            In his first season at BYU, Coach King helped guide the Cougar men's team to repeat as MPSF conference champions, leading a resurgent BYU distance program to its highest finishes in the last 10 years. Successes from that season included three of the top five finishes in the women's 1650 at the MPSF conference meet, and new BYU team records for the men's 500, 1000, and 1650 freestyle. King also helped freshman standout Tanner Nelson to MPSF Freshman of the Year honors, and NCAA qualification in the 400 IM.
            Coach King continued to build on that success during the 2022-2023 season, during which he helped lead the BYU men's team to its third-consecutive MPSF championship. King also helped further the development of the BYU distance program, adding new BYU all-time top-five performances for men and women in the 200 free, 500 free, and 1650.
            Coach King started his collegiate coaching career at then-Dixie State during the 2020-21 season, during which he served as assistant coach overseeing the distance team. Working with athletes coming through the pandemic and helping guide the Trailblazers during the program's first NCAA Division I transition season, King mentored many of the team's distance swimmers to both career and collegiate best times.
            King has coached athletes from prep levels to the national level with USA Swimming while working with clubs in Utah, Idaho, Texas, Illinois, and Florida. His athletes' accomplishments include multiple Utah state record holders, U.S. national qualifiers, and Division I and Division II collegiate athletes. 
            Coach King is joined poolside by first-year assistant coach Colby Clark.

2022-23 QUICK SEASON RECAP: Last season Utah Tech raced to a fourth-place team at the 2023 Western Athletic Conference championship meet, which was the best overall finish at any conference meet in program history.
            The Trailblazers, who scored a program-best 462 points at the WAC meet, wound up with 10 total medals over the four days of competition, which included the four gold medals, far and away the highest medal total in program history, along with several more top-10 individual and relay finishes. 

THE 2023-24 ROSTER: Utah Tech returns eight swimmers from last season's squad that finished earned 10 medals and placed fourth at the 2023 WAC championship meet. 
            Three of UT's three medalists are back for 2023-24, including senior Skyler Lyon, who collected a pair of silver medals in both the 200-meter medley and 400-m medley relays. Fellow senior Ginevra Molino is also back after she won bronze thanks to a record-breaking effort in the 400 IM (4:18.98).
            Sophomore Natalia Zmierczak returns following a stellar debut season, which she capped with a bronze medal as part of UT's 400-m free relay team, and senior Eleonore Rembert, who broke school records in the both the 200 IM (2:04.66) and 50 back (25.22) at the WAC meet, is back for another season.  
            The Trailblazers also return three upperclassmen senior Danyael Cuison (free/fly/breast), and juniors Mandy Farnum (free/back) and Paulina Sansores (free/fly/breast/IM/distance), along with sophomore Tavia Stemmons (free/fly/breast). 
In addition, Utah Tech welcomes in eight new freshmen who will look to make an immediate impact, including Grace Benson (free/back/breast/IM), Lainey Devine (sprint/free), Ellianne Effland (breast/IM), Abigail Hill(fly/free/breast), Kaiya Lawson (free/breast/fly/IM), Cera Mallory (free/breast/fly/IM), Sorina Rom(sprint/free/breast) and Mary Sims Cross (free/back/fly/IM). 
            Three of the Trailblazers hail from Utah, while eight total states – Utah, Arizona (2), California (2), Colorado (1), Illinois (1), Nevada (1), Oregon (1) and Tennessee (1), along with four foreign countries – France (1), Italy (1), Mexico (1) and Poland (1), are represented on this year's roster.   
 
NEXT UP FOR THE TRAILBLAZERS: Utah Tech will close out the 2023 portion of its season slate by hosting the Third-Annual Trailblazer Invitational, which will be held Nov. 16-18, at the UT HPC Pool.