Courtesy: CSU Athletics
FORT COLLINS – Second weekend, twice the competition.
Colorado State’s women’s swimming and diving team is poised to host Mountain West foes Air Force and New Mexico this weekend, moving the event down the street, a prospect it hopes to do with more regularity in coming seasons.
The two-day event will take place at Edora Pool Ice Center, starting Friday at 3 p.m. Saturday’s action begins at 10 a.m. Each day will feature 11 events (though Friday’s 3-meter diving will take place at Moby Pool) and feature a few events which are off the NCAA books.
The change in venue is also exciting to head coach Christopher Woodard, the move a blast to the past for the program.
“It’s been to my knowledge nearly two decades since we’ve been at EPIC. We want to reestablish that partnership, and hopefully moving forward, we can attract even more quality opponents from out of state to come join us,” Woodard said. “It’s’ new. It’s a new venue, it’s exciting. We get to race deeper from the limitations at our pool; we have six lanes, now we get to have upwards of nine lanes with three teams.”
Air Force opened with the Intermountain Shootout in Grand Junction, going 1-3 in the four duals, the lone victory coming against CSU-Pueblo. This will mark the first competition of the season for the Lobos.
Colorado State dropped a showdown at Wyoming last week, snapping an unbeaten string of 23 duals. For Woodard, the lessons learned from the meet have been pressed into this week’s preparations, some of which were a continuation of season-long targets for the team.
“For us, it’s hammering home the points that we were talking about prior to the Wyoming meet, which was we have to be sharper on our focus and sharper on our finishes, especially the last 25 to 50 yards,” Woodard said. “The message is only as good as how many times you repeat it. We’re preaching repetition, repetition, repetition. We have to treat our practices like a game. That was another one of the messages we got through.”
Each day will feature two relays, with Friday also mixing in the 100-yard individual medley and 50 butterfly into the mix; Saturday will add the 50 breaststroke to the mix. Senior captain Lucy Matheson won a pair of events against Wyoming, ranking in the top five of the conference in both butterfly distances. Sydney VanOvermeiren and Erin Dawson placed 1-2 in the 400 individual medley, which is where their times rank in the event conference wide in the early going. Lexie Trietley, Tess Whineray and Maya White also posted times which rank in the top five of the Mountain West.
Rams in the Mountain West Top 10
1. VanOvermeiren, 400 IM, 4:24.34
2. Dawson, 400 IM, 4:25.58
2. Matheson,200 fly, 2:03.08
2. Trietley, 100 free, 50.88
2. Whineray 200 back, 2:01.61
3. Trietley, 50 free, 23.60
4. Whineray, 100 back, 56.70
5. Dawson, 200 free 1:52.19
5. White, 500 free, 5:03.76
5. Matheson, 100 fly, 56.49
6. Maya White, 1,000 free, 10:25.23
6. VanOvermeiren, 200 breast, 2:20.25
7. McClelland, 100 breast, 1:04.85
7. Hager, 50 free, 24.04
8. O’Neil, 100 fly, 57.83
8. Chorpening, 1,000 free, 10:40.53
9. Johnson, 200 free, 1:53.73
9. Saxon, 200 back, 2:06.56
9. McClelland, 200 breast, 2:22.23
10. O’Neil, 200 fly, 2:07.68
