The Wyoming Cowboys got their first Western Athletic Conference win over UNLV since 2005, topping the Rebels in Las Vegas. The Wyoming women picked up a Mountain West Conference win over UNLV and also beat Northern Arizona.
Men’s Meet
Wyoming dropped both relays, but still managed to pull out an 8-point win, thanks in large part to three big individual event titles from junior Ryan Nelson.
Nelson, last year’s breakout NCAA qualifier, swept the distance freestyle races, going 9:30.10 in the 1000 and 4:34.33 in the 500. Not finished yet, Nelson came back for the dagger win in the 200 IM, going 1:51.46 to all but clinch the win for Wyoming. That 200 IM put the Cowboys up to 149 points with one event left, meaning the team only had to finish the 400 free relay without DQing to pick up the meet win.
Nelson was helped by fellow 2014 NCAA qualifier Adam Kalms. Kalms stepped down one notch in distances, sweeping the 200 free (1:37.91) and 100 free (44.17), both in tight wins over UNLV’s Tom Paco-Pedroni.
The only freestyle race the home team could steal was the 50 free, where resident sprint star Dillon Virva put up a 19.97 with Paco-Pedroni in tow for the 1-2.
UNLV’s biggest scorer was butterflyer Balint Batka, who won twice. Batka ran away with the 200 fly in 1:47.87, and came back to win the 100 fly in 49.20. The UNLV 1-2 of that 100 fly was a much-needed boost that kept the Rebels in the hunt for the meet win, though that hope was snuffed out in the following event, the 200 IM.
The teams split the breaststrokes, with Wyoming’s Kyle Scalise winning the 100-yard distance (56.15), but falling to UNLV’s Boris Kulizhnikov (2:03.49) in the 200.
Wyoming wound up winning the meet 153-145, its first win over UNLV since 2005.
Women’s Meet
The Wyoming women were dominant, winning 13 of 16 events en route to a 181.5-103.5 win over UNLV and a 197-80 win over Northern Arizona.
Junior Emma Dow was a big part of that dominance, winning twice and going a lifetime-best 2:19.79 in the 200 breaststroke.
Dow came back just a few events later to pace the 200 IM in 2:06.31 to ice the team’s win.
Also doubling up was butterflyer Molly Coonce, also a junior. Coonce swept the 100 and 200 flys, going 54.72 and 2:02.15, respectively.
Wyoming showed up to swim from the opening event, picking up a narrow touchout in the 200 medley relay. The Cowgirls went 1:43.90 to UNLV’s 1:44.13, getting a big 22.95 anchor split from Emily Ridout.
That set off a 7-event run for Wyoming to start the meet, culminating in Ridout’s 23.34 win in the 50 free.
UNLV picked up its first win right after the first diving break, as Michelle Troup and Julia Fehervari went 1-2 in the 100 free over the top of Ridout. Troup was 51.41 for the win. The Rebels made it two in a row with Jessica Wong‘s 2:02.44 win in the 200 back, but Wyoming closed the door from there, winning every remaining event except the 400 free relay.
Northern Arizona’s top finisher was Alina Staffeldt, who finished second behind Coonce in both butterfly races. Her teammate Caitlin Wright was also the runner-up in the 1000 free.
