Courtesy: Wyoming Athletics
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Feb. 6, 2021) – Sophomore Melissa Mirafuentes closed out the Air Force Invite with her third victory of the weekend in the platform on Saturday afternoon.
Senior Abigail Zoromski stormed out in the preliminaries with a career-high score of 221.80 to finish first. Mirafuentes posted the third best score with a total of 210.60, while McKenna Houlihan recorded a season-high 197.60. In the finals, Mirafuentes would respond with a season-best total of 246.50 to finish atop the podium. Houlihan was sixth with a score of 188.80, while Zoromski tallied a total of 171.40.
“It was a great preliminaries for the ladies,” head diving coach Ted Everett said. “It was a season and career-best for Abigail and once again McKenna was rock solid and consistent. In the finals, Melissa had an amazing third round dive that pretty much sealed the victory for her. Abigail came off a little flat, but this is the perfect preparation and learning experience heading into conference.”
For the Cowboys, sophomore Brendan Byrnes paced the way for the Cowboys with a fifth place finish in the prelims with a mark of 265.25. Freshman Juan Gonzalez finished right behind in sixth with score of 262.90 followed by senior Elijah Chan in seventh with a six dive total of 246.25. Sophomore Payton Lee collected a score of 221.10. In the finals, Gonzalez moved up two spots to fourth with a career-best mark of 271.20. Byrnes stayed in fifth with a total of 260.80 while Chan placed seventh with a total score of 225.25.
Coming up for the Cowgirl swimming team, several individuals will head to the First Chance meet on Friday in Denver.
Courtesy: Utah Athletics
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The Utah diving program finished off the weekend strong at the Air Force Diving Invitational with Saturday’s competition highlighted by Luke McDivitt winning the platform for the men.
“We made some really important strides this weekend as far as how we compete,” said Ute diving head coach Richard Marschner. “It was really great to see us challenged, make a mistake and then bounce back and recover so well. It was great to get some wins and multiple podium spots, but I’m most impressed with our overall improvement as a team in our resilience and mental toughness.”
Marscher continued, “We had two hospital trips on consecutive nights because of injuries, along with some difficulties in travel, but the team just kept their collective composures and continued competing at a high level.”
Emma Ruchala led the women on the platform Saturday, taking third with a score of 198.85 in the finals. In the prelims, Lexi Mills placed 10th with 188.30 and Lizzy DeCecco placed 12th with 181.70.
For the men, McDivitt took first place on the platform with a score of 335.95 to cap off the weekend. Chase Hindmarsh finished in sixth with a score of 257.95 and Tony Chen came in eighth with a score 222.35.
Up next, the Utah men will take on USC Friday and Saturday, Feb. 12-13.
Courtesy: Colorado State Athletics
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – There are times when one should temper their expectations for an event. Saturday was one of those days for Colorado State’s women divers on the third day of competition at the Air Force Diving Invitational.
The final event of the invite was the platform, which the Rams have not competed on, nor have they practiced on it this year.
“The platform event today went as well as can be expected considering our circumstances,” CSU diving coach Chris Bergere said. “We have not had the opportunity to really train and showcase this event properly due to many mitigating factors. It was more of a training exercise used to improve ourselves and our diving skills in general.”
So he said they kept their five-dive sets realistic. And safe, especially when one is traveling at up to 30 mph before hitting the water.
Freshman Braeden Shaffer scored a 178.30, placing 13th. Jessica Albanna was 15th at 162.15, and Rachel Holland was 16th at 160.40.
“We are improving each week, and this competition was important to our overall goal of competing to the best of our abilities in 10 days at the Mountain West Championships,” Bergere said. “We will be much better as a team and individually because of this past experience at the Air Force Diving Invitational. We keep learning and getting better at understanding ourselves and the sport.”
