ST. GEORGE, Utah – The Pacific men's and women's swim teams concluded a hard-fought battle on the first day of the Utah Tech Trailblazer Invitational. 

"We had some big swims today for where we're at in the season," said Head Coach Katelyne Herrington. "The 500 and 50 free events were solid, but the 200 individual medley was definitely the stand-out event for the day."

The men's team placed fourth out of the five teams with a score of 123 points, while the women's team placed ninth out of 11 competing teams with a score of 15.

The Tigers had great showings in the preliminaries Thursday morning. On the women's side, sophomore Paige Sondgeroth placed 10th out of 66 swimmers in the 200 individual medley, while the men's side saw junior Aidan Vollmar and junior Aidan Scott placing 9th and 12th, respectively, out of 30 swimmers for the same event.

In the 500 free, freshman Ethan Cole finished 13th out of 60 swimmers, and sophomore Ellie Macphail finished 11th out of 60 swimmers.

"We also came into finals with energy which showed in our relays," said Herrington. "We swam some impressive splits for both the 200 free relay and 400 medley relay, building momentum and settling the nerves."

In the finals, junior Alex Kurotori, sophomore Mitchell Hopper, sophomore Leland Baltazar and Vollmar all contributed to a fourth-place finish out of the nine groups in the 200 free relay. 

Scott had the ninth-best time in the 200 individual medley.

In the women's 200 free relay, the Tigers placed 14th out of 25 groups, with a sophomore squad of Alexia Ferguson, Sondgeroth, Jaydn Phillips, and Macphail.

The Tigers will compete on the second day of the Utah Tech Trailblazer Invitational tomorrow at 9 a.m. PT/10 a.m. MT.

Fans can live stream the Utah Tech Trailblazer Invitational here. 

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