TUCSON, ARIZ.— The Wildcats defeated Minnesota (No. 24 men's/No. 23 women's) in Arizona's final home meet of the season Jan. 18.
Arizona's women defeated the Golden Gophers 156-144, while the Wildcat men came out on top 162-147.
Arizona also celebrated Senior Day on Saturday, honoring 12 seniors and their contributions as Wildcats: Maddy Ahluwalia, Tate Bahti, Steffi Beisel, Nadia Bouraoui, Jack Donovan, Lexi Duchsherer, Brooke Earley, Lizzie Mackowiak, Mason Nyboer, Beck Parnham, Alyssa Schwengel and Daniel Young.
The Cats saw standout performances from athletes across the swimming and diving squads.
Arizona's relay teams came out on top in every relay event. Notably, in both the 400 Medley relay and 200 Free relay, the Wildcat men went 1-2.
Ralph Daleiden helped add 33 points to Arizona's final score, 18 of which came from his first-place wins in the 100 and 200 Free races. The remaining 15 points Daleiden contributed came from his role in the winning men's 200 Free relay and the second-place men's 400 Medley relay teams. Like Daleiden, junior Haakon Naughton secured two first place finishes (in the 100 and 200 Fly events) in addition to his relay contributions.
Junior Eleni Gewalt tallied 31 points for the Cats, 18 of which came from her two first-place finishes in individual events. Gewalt earned the top spot in the Women's 100 BR with a 1:00.71 that is just .58 seconds off her personal best (1:00.13).
Brooke Earley and Gage DuBois both earned podium finishes in both of the diving competitions. Both divers took home first in the 1m event; Earley secured second place in the 3m, while Gage DuBois earned third. Arizona's divers closed out the meet, with the final score hanging on their performances.
Multiple Arizona athletes earned season-best times for the Wildcat roster. MJ Neilson put up Arizona's best time in the 200 Fly this season (2:01.35). Kayman Neal earned Arizona's best time of the season for the 200 Back (1:56.58), also securing an NCAA "B" Cut in the event. In her first place 100 Fly swim, Maryam Sheikhalizadehkhangh earned a personal best (53.37), doubling as Arizona's best time of the season, and was just .03 seconds shy of an NCAA "B" Cut time.
The Cats wrapped the meet with 17 first place finishes and 49 top-three finishes across the men's and women's squads.
Head coach Ben Loorz commended the team on their showing this weekend.
"This was a true team effort today, and to send our Seniors off with a big win was a great feeling. Minnesota is a very good squad, but we had so many people step up today, in both small and big ways," Loorz said. "A good example is the fact that our men's relays went 1-2 in both the Medley and the Freestyle relay events…we wouldn't have won without that depth, it was that close. And it's not often that divers get the chance to have a 'bottom of the 9th, bases loaded' moment...they had that today, and definitely delivered."
Top-three finishes:
First place:
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Women's 400 Medley Relay: Arizona "A" Relay, 3:36.89 (Paige Armstrong, Eleni Gewalt, Maryam Sheikhalizadehkhangh, Alyssa Schwengel)
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Men's 400 Medley Relay: Arizona "A" Relay, 3:09.05 (Ryan Hardy, Daniel Young, Haakon Naughton, Tomas Lukminas)
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Men's 200 Free: Ralph Daleiden (1:34.90)
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Women's 100 BR: Eleni Gewalt (1:00.71)
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Men's 100 BR: Tavner Wisdom (53.20)**
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Men's 200 Fly: Haakon Naughton (1:42.62)**
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Women's 50 Free: Lexi Duchsherer (22.31)**
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Women's 1m: Brooke Earley (303.15)
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Men's 1m: Gage DuBois (332.70)
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Women's 100 Free: Julia Wozniak (50.00)
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Men's 100 Free: Ralph Daleiden (43.29)
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Women's 200 Back: Kayman Neal (1:56.58)**
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Women's 200 BR: Eleni Gewalt (2:13.90)
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Women's 100 Fly: Maryam Sheikhalizadehkhangh (53.37)*
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Men's 100 Fly: Haakon Naughton (45.99)**
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Women's 200 Free Relay: Arizona "A" Relay, 1:28.99 (Lexi Duchsherer, Riley Botton, Julia Wozniak, Alyssa Schwengel)**(No. 23 NCAA)
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Men's 200 Free Relay: Arizona "B" Relay, 1:18.82 (Ralph Daleiden, Hunter Ingram, Lars Kuljus, Daniel Young)
Second place:
Third place:
*personal best
**NCAA "B" Cut
