As the northern Colorado area gets hit with heavy snow storms, the Colorado State swimming & diving squad hope to bring a blizzard of top times to Greeley for its matchup with the Northern Colorado Bears on Wednesday evening.
The Rams enter the meet coming off a pair of dual meet wins to begin 2016, topping Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, Arizona, on Jan. 16 and a home win over conference foe Air Force on Saturday at Moby Pool. The meeting with the Bears will be the last dual meet of the season for the Rams before they prepare for the Mountain West Championships Feb. 17-20.
“We are excited to face our crosstown rival and get one last opportunity to perform prior to the Mountain West Championships,” CSU Head Coach Christopher Woodard said.
A win on Wednesday would give CSU a 3-3 record in dual meets in 2015-16. The Rams lost their three dual meets in 2015, but have won each of the two they’ve competed in for the new year.
SCOUTING – NORTHERN COLORADO
The Northern Colorado Bears are 11-9 in head-to-head competition this season, coming off a winning weekend in Kearney, Nebraska, where they faced CSU-Pueblo and Nebraska-Kearney.
CSU and Northern Colorado shared a pool at the Phill Hansel Invite in Houston in November, with the Rams placing fifth and the Bears taking 10th. The two squads also have a pair of common opponents in Northern Arizona and Air Force, with the Rams beating both teams and the Bears recording two losses in their meetings.
RAMS TOP AIR FORCE ON SENIOR DAY (Jan. 30)
The Colorado State Rams swimming and diving squad picked up its second dual meet win of the season on Saturday, beating the Air Force Falcons 186-114 at Moby Pool.
On a day when CSU’s four seniors – Cristina Bassani, Ariana Milone, Jessica Shepard and Mackenzie Thornton – were honored, a pair of underclassmen stole the show with a pair of wins to help propel CSU to the victory.
“There were some absolutely thrilling swims today,” Head Coach Christopher Woodard said after the meet. “I’m not as concerned about some of the times because the race strategy was a bit off, but I’m more impressed by the fact that when Air Force came in and really countered us in some events that we didn’t back down, and instead we countered back in other events.
“There’s always an extra charge when you have a senior meet,” Woodard said. “It doesn’t guarantee you wins by any stretch of the imagination but I think the team really rallied round the seniors. I think the underclassmen really wanted to send the seniors off the right way.”
Sophomore Katie Kicklighter won both the 50 (24.04) & 100 Freestyle (52.80), while freshman Natalie Grothe won the 100 Breaststroke (1:06.05). The 100 Breaststroke win was the first for Grothe in her collegiate career. The Rams swept the top three spots in the 50 Free with freshman Carmen Mand (24.36) and junior Karin Roh (24.40) taking second and third, respectively.
Milone opened up the day with a win on the 3-meter boards for the Rams, posting a score of 336.75, good enough to qualify for the NCAA Diving Zones. CSU then followed with a win in the opening swim event, taking first in the 200 medley relay with the Rams’ A squad (Shepard, Bassani, Roh and Kicklighter) recording a time of 1:44.31.
Shepard followed that result with a win in the 100 Backstroke (57.06) a few events later, over second-place freshman Tonicia Thomas (58.89).
Milone backed up her 3-meter win with a narrow victory in the 1-meter event, scoring 269.40, winning by less than 11 points over the runner-up from Air Force. Freshman Hailey Spratte won the 200 Back (2:03.75) as the Rams again swept the podium in the event with Shepard (2:04.62) and Thomas (2:06.32) taking second and third. Junior Jenna Beaury led the Rams in the 200 Breast (2:24.65) as CSU pulled away by again sweeping the top three spots as Bassani (2:24.68) and junior Meg Lloyd (2:27.26) placed second and third.
SHEPARD LEADS RAMS TO WIN OVER NORTHERN ARIZONA (Jan. 16)
The Colorado State Rams swimming and diving squad won their first dual meet of 2016, defeating Northern Arizona 160-140 in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Senior Jessica Shepard led the Rams in the pool, racking up four wins on the day. Shepard helped give CSU an early lead in the 200 medley relay, combining with senior Cristina Bassani, freshman Carmen Mand and sophomore Katie Kicklighter for the victory. Shepard also won in the 100 & 200 back and the 200 IM.
“It was a great meet. I couldn’t have been happier,” Head Coach Christopher Woodard said. “We did really, really well from top to bottom. I’m really happy and we are definitely headed in the right direction. They swam with high intensity and positivity.”
Kicklighter also helped CSU win four total events, competing in both the 200 medley relay and the 200 free relay, as well as winning the 50 & 100 free individual events. Junior Karin Roh, Mand and junior Teagan Griffith also helped push the Rams to the win in the 200 free relay.
Senior Ariana Milone gave the Rams one diving win, posting a 300.75 score in the 3-meter dive.
ROWLEY SET TO JOIN CSU SWIM TEAM
The Colorado State swimming and diving team has announced the addition of transfer Haley Rowley to the team. The Colorado native has enrolled in classes and will join the squad starting in the 2016-17 season.
Rowley, a native of Lafayette, Colorado and graduate of Centaurus High School, will bring an immense amount of ability to CSU.
“We are incredibly excited to welcome Haley Rowley back to the state of Colorado,” Head Coach Christopher Woodard said. “Haley is an exceptional talent, who developed into a national caliber athlete under the tutelage of Shawn Smith of the Denver Hilltoppers. Haley is able to swim a multitude of events, but we expect she will focus quite a bit on backstroke, IM and distance free and be an immediate factor within the Mountain West and hopefully on the NCAA stage, as well.”
Rowley was an incredibly accomplished swimmer in the Colorado high school ranks, earning 2015 Colorado Swimmer of the Year her senior year. Rowley holds the state record in the 400 IM, and participated in Olympic Trials in 2012 and 2015. Her 2:14.9 time in the 200 backstroke in the 2012 Olympic Trials placed her 26th out of 186 competitors. Rowley was also a Scholastic All-American in high school, and was the 83rd-ranked swimmer in the class of 2015 according to CollegeSwimming.com.
Rowley competed for Purdue in the fall, posting the team’s fifth-best marks in the 1000 free (10:09.27), 200 back (2:01.18) and the fourth-best in the 400 IM (4:26.05).
MILONE CONTINUES TO DOMINATE THE BOARDS
Senior Ariana Milone has continued to dominate the 1-meter and 3-meter diving events, racking up 10 wins across the two disciplines on the year. Milone posted a season-best score of 336.75 in the 3-meter in the Rams’ win over Air Force on Jan. 30. Milone is a two-time winner of the Mountain West Diver of the Week this season and has won the honor six times in her career, the most in program history. Milone has also qualified for NCAA Diving Zones in both the 1-meter and 3-meter this season, marking her fourth straight appearance at the event.
UP NEXT
CSU’s divers will head down I-25 to the Air Force Diving Invitational for Friday and Saturday. Following that, the Rams will head to the Mountain West Championships from Feb. 17-20.
Swimming news courtesy of Colorado State Swimming & Diving.
