Women's Swimming | 10/3/2025 8:16:00 PM

Utah Tech swimming got off to a strong start to open the 2025-26 season on day one at the Pepperdine Rodionoff Invitational on Friday at the Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool in Malibu, Calif.
 
The Trailblazers claimed victory in four of the first eight events of the two-day meet to stand in second place behind the host Waves, 177-57, while Azusa Pacific (16 pts) is in distant third.
 
Two of the four race victories came in the relays, beginning with the first event of the day, the 200-yard freestyle relay, where the "A" team of Reagan Patterson, Sorina Rom, Nia Turagavou and Gabby Henry touched the wall in 1:36.57.
 
The Trailblazer "A" team finished just ahead of Utah Tech's "B" team made up of Cera Mallory, Makaela Perea, Madeleine McGaughley and Natalia Zmierczak, which clocked a runner-up time of 1:36.91.
 
Mallory recorded Utah Tech's first individual race win, which came in the 1,000 free in a time of 10:26.78. The junior won the race by nearly five full seconds, and her time was the sixth-fastest time in that event in program history.
 
In the 100 free, the Blazers swept the top-five spots in the collegiate heats, with Patterson posting her first collegiate event win with a time of 52.63, just edging her teammate Rom (52.71) by 0.08 seconds. McGaughley (52.81) wound up third, followed by Mallory (52.83) in fourth and Zmierczak (53.07) in fifth.
 
In other individual events, Katie Reichner posted a pair of runner-up finishes in the 200 back (2:04.97) and 200 fly (2:10.33) in her first collegiate meet, while Alyssa Gordon was Utah Tech's top finisher in both the 200 IM (5^th – 2:12.83) and 100 breast (3^rd – 1:07.26). 

The Trailblazers' final victory on day one came in the 400 medley relay, where the team of Perea, Mallory, Reichner and Patterson clocked a 3:54.15.

Utah Tech returns to the pool on Saturday for Day Two at the Pepperdine Invite, which begins at 11 a.m. (MT).