Women's Swimming | 10/6/2024 10:35:00 AM

Utah Tech swimming enjoyed a solid start to its 2024-25 season with a second place team finish at the Pepperdine Rodionoff Invitational, which concluded on Saturday at the Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool in Malibu, Calif.

The Trailblazers owned a four-point lead on the host Waves in the Division I portion of the meet after day one on Friday, but Pepperdine came back on Saturday to win the meet by a 340-306.50 score. San Diego (111 pts) finished a distant third, and California Baptist (72.50 pts) wound up fourth. 
 
After claiming five events victories on day one, Utah Tech won six more races on Saturday.

Freshman Alyssa Gordon got the individual races going with the first of her first two collegiate wins on the day, which came in the 400-meter IM in a time of 4:34.97. Gordon then followed that up with triumph in the 200 breast at 2:24.76.

Sophomore Cera Mallory racked up three race wins on the weekend, including a pair of victories on Saturday in both the 200 free (1:55.37) and 500 free (5:03.26).

Freshman Gabby Henry, who won her collegiate debut event in the 200 fly on Friday, made it a clean sweep of the butterfly events as she touched the wall first in the 100 fly at 57.54. 

Sophomore Mary Sims Cross followed suit, chasing her Friday win in the 200 back with a victory in the 100 back with a time of 57.85. 
 
In the relays, Utah Tech started the day with a second-place showing in the 200 medley relay, with the team of Cross, sophomore Grace Benson, Henry and senior Mandy Farnum posting a 1:49.01.
 
The Trailblazers then closed the meet with a third-place finish in the 400 free relay, as the team of Mallory, freshman Jordan Musselman, Benson and Farnum clocked a 3:34.44.

Utah Tech will continue its 2024 fall schedule with three days of intrasquad time trials at the HPC Pool from Oct. 31-Nov. 2.