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It says something about the competitiveness of Olympic sports in the Pac-12 that Utah's men's swimming team enters this week's conference championships ranked No. 20 in the nation and expected to finish fifth out of six teams.

Championship formats favor depth, said head coach Joe Dykstra, and that's something the Utes are still building.

But Utah is trending in the right direction after last year capturing its first-ever Pac-12 individual titles, with Nick Soedel winning the 100 free and Bence Kiraly winning 1,650 free.

Utah went 9-1 in dual meets this season — their only loss to the No. 11 Trojans — but they'll be tested by No. 2 Cal (fresh off the women's title), USC, No. 12 Stanford and No. 13 Arizona at the conference championships, which run Wednesday through Saturday at the Weyerhauser King Aquatic Center in Federal Way, Wash.

Knocking off just one — Arizona, whom Utah beat in November, is the most likely candidate — would be a significant achievement. Utah was fifth last season even with Soedel and Kiraly's titles.

Soedel, Kiraly and senior Alex Fernandes are still tapering for NCAAs in three weeks, but the rest of Utah's swimmers will have spent their entire season preparing to be at their best this week.

Dykstra said the No. 1 goal is to qualify some of Utah's relay teams for NCAAs — with 400 and 800 free being the most likely candidates.

The Utes have 13 freshman compared to just five seniors. "That was the whole idea, is that we kind of needed [more depth]," Dykstra said.

Among the freshman to watch this week is Jack Burton, an English breaststroker who has the conference's 17th-fastest time in the 100 and 14th-fastest in the 200, and who is "really coming on lately," Dykstra said.

Utah's diving "team" has the Utes off to a decent start, especially considering that team right now consists of just one man: junior Jacob Crayne, who finished third in the 1-meter dive last week as men's diving was held in conjunction with the women's swimming championships.

Utah's women finished sixth out of 10 Pac-12 teams, behind No. 1 Cal, No. 3 Stanford, No. 11 Arizona, No. 12 USC and No. 16 UCLA, and edging out No. 26 Arizona State 652-610.

Dykstra said consistency was an issue for the women, but "I was really proud of the way the girls stepped up on the last day of competition" to pass ASU.

Their sixth-place finish was a repeat of last year's performance, albeit without the podium finishes of Stina Colleou (second, 200 breast) and Kersten Merry (third, platform diving). Utah was seventh in 2012 and 2013.

Among the highlights: Freshman Maddie Meisel took seventh in the 1,650 free with a season-best 16:31.41, senior Giuliana Gigliotti was seventh in the 100 free at 49.10, Colleou finished sixth in the 200 breast and senior Jasmine Matkovic landed seventh in platform diving.

— Matthew Piper

Twitter: @matthew_piper