COLORADO STATE VS NORTHERN COLORADO
- January 24, 2026
- Fort Collins, Colo.
- SCY (25 yards)
- Results
Courtesy: Colorado State Athletics
FORT COLLINS – There was the finality of it being the last.
Her last race in the last home meet of her last collegiate season. It just so happened to be the first time Erin Dawson swam the 400-yard individual medley at Moby Pool. The race just doesn’t make its way into the meet program for duals very often, even less so when your home tank is at altitude.
But Northern Colorado was game Saturday and so was Dawson, breaking the pool record with her time of 4:27.64 to claim her second event of the day and the 63rd of her career, and she did so by the scantest of margins — .02 – to wrestle it away from former Ram, Haley Rowley.
To some, perfectly scripted.
“(Associate head coach) Lisa (Ginder) said it was very fitting for me to get the pool record by .02, and I completely agree because I feel like that’s always how it goes,” Dawson said. “And I think that makes it feel even better, just knowing that I got it by a hair.”
Overall, coach Christopher Woodard‘s crew controlled the meet with the in-state rival save for a couple of blips, breaking away for a 171-129 victory, making the team 6-3 on the season. The Rams did it by winning 10 of the 16 events, including the relays which bookended a meet where six-time Olympic gold medalist Amy Van Dyken was honored with the dropping of her banner for the Ring of Honor and eight seniors were honored.
The individual wins came in pairs for four Rams as Dawson also captured the 200 freestyle, fellow senior Lexie Trietley won the 50 and 100 freestyles, junior Tess Whineray won both backstrokes and freshman Sydney Ovesen continued her strong string of performances by sweeping the two diving events.
While the day was all about the upperclassmen, the youngers are proving they are far from an afterthought.
This season, Whineray has seen Dawson reach the 50-race-win mark, then keep moving. Trietley reached it the past meet, then added to her total. Now she’s part of the club, her victory in the 200 backstroke No. 50 for her.
“It feels pretty exciting, to be honest. When we were at Air Force, and Lexie got to the 50 wins, that was really, really cool. And then we were in the hot tub, and Addison (Wicklund) was asking me, how many do you have?” Whineray said. “I was like, I just got 48 today, and so I was thinking, next week I’m going to get it.
“I’m really excited, I’m really stoked that I have had the opportunity to get 50 wins. It feels crazy that there’s been 50. You just think about it as one win at a time. But then they all add up.”
They do, and Woodard knew in some regards they were maxing out her pressure envelope.
Whineray won so much, so soon, those wins were counted upon as a major factor in the team’s success. He could sense it was a lot on the shoulders for the New Zealand product, and he was correct.
“I think everybody’s different. When you have those kids who you can continually go to, and you almost automatically know that it’s gonna be a win, that can be a heavy burden for them to bear,” he said. “And that can be difficult. I think there’s some people that thrive under that spotlight. I wouldn’t say that comes naturally to Tess. This is something that she has developed. So she still has the same anxieties and nerves, but I think she just … She swims for something bigger than herself. That’s why she came to America.”
Whineray said her coach was right. The more she was counted on, the more she felt it. It was after meeting with Ross Barr, CSU’s assistant athletic director for student-athlete mental health and performance, she started to view it differently. Cliché, but she started to take it as a privilege and ride with the wave instead of fight the current.
This season she has claimed the school records in both the 100 and 200 backstroke, winning the 200 back title at the Phill Hansel Invitational, so the approach is working.
And Ovesen, a hometown product, has found something which is working for her. She’s spent her past three meets improving her scores, going from personal bests to reaching NCAA Zones cuts. She took it a step further on Saturday, winning the 3-meter springboard with a 272.48 (just shy of Zones) and closing with an eye-popping 295.13 on the 1-meter, definitely good for Zones and landing her No. 5 at the school in the event.
She is one of three divers first-year diving coach Seth O’Dea has seen reach Zones and the second freshman to crack the school’s top 10 on a board; Juliana Dodd did it earlier on platform.
“It’s great to have those freshmen showing those top performances and just looking back on where we were at the beginning of the season to where we are now. It’s just again reassuring that we’re doing the right things,” O’Dea said. “We’re focusing on the daily habits and the consistency and just working towards the end of season goals.”
Eventually, their climb will lead them to where Dawson and her class found themselves on the day, wondering where the time went and reflecting on the pathway which got them to this point. They all say it goes by so fast, even for Dawson, a redshirt senior who was on campus a season prior to those she shared center stage with at the meet.
Records or not, the day was going to come with emotions. For Whineray, she knew there would be tears. Dawson was fine with that, calling her a crier anyway. The day hits the seniors, but it stings the team as well.
“I think it’s a little bit of everything. I definitely am sad just because it’s my last dual meet in Moby,” Dawson said. “I don’t know … I’m lucky to have had another year, but it’s also, oh man, this is real, this is the last year. I think I kind of used the energy of everybody.
“It really is cool like to see everybody celebrating the seniors and I’m just so lucky to have so many great teammates who love me and love the other seniors. So, I kind of fed off that energy, too. And I know everybody wants me to succeed, which is really helpful.”
Courtesy: Northern Colorado Athletics
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Northern Colorado swimming & diving turned in a number of strong individual performances Saturday morning but ultimately fell 179-121 to Colorado State in a dual at the Moby Aquatic Center.
The Bears were paced in the pool by a pair of standout breaststroke swims from Maria Erokhina, who delivered two of UNC’s highest-scoring efforts of the day. Erokhina placed first in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:03.63 before adding another first-place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke at 2:19.74. Avi Tromp contributed additional points in the 100 breast (1:04.56) with a second-place finish, while Agathi Manoli and Hlaa Diab turned in solid showings in the 400-yard individual medley.
Kyra Rabess led the Bears’ freestyle group with three strong races, placing second in the 200-yard freestyle (1:53.85), first in the 500-yard freestyle (5:11.44), and first again in the 1,000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:38.23. Emma On-the-Hill followed closely in the 1,000 free, finishing in 10:40.17. Ellyson Lombardi added one of UNC’s top scoring swims in the 200-yard butterfly, placing first with a time of 2:04.54, while Ariane Bernier, Alexis Mishler and Vitoria Simioni provided depth across the backstroke and sprint freestyle events.
On the boards, Violet Noel delivered another impressive performance with two podium finishes. Noel placed second on the 3-meter board with a score of 267.00, finishing just five points behind Colorado State’s Sydney Ovesen. She followed with a third-place showing on the 1-meter board, totaling 252.45 points, to cap a strong afternoon for the Bears’ diving group.
UP NEXT: The Bears will host Utah Tech on Saturday, February 7 at 10 a.m. in Butler-Hancock Pool.
