Cowgirl swimmers remain unbeaten

DENVER -- The Wyoming women's swim team remained unbeaten with a 178-122 win over Denver on Tuesday. The Cowboys weren't as fortunate, falling to DU 154-146.

With the win, the Cowgirls are now 9-0 on the season in duals, while the Cowboys fell to 5-2 with the loss.

The Wyoming divers kicked off the meet with the women on the three-meter board and the men on the one-meter board. The Cowgirls were led by Allie Smith, who won with a final score of 279.60 points. Stephanie Ortiz, Tiffany Izatt and Emily Huth placed second through fourth respectively. For the Pokes one-meter, Mark Murdock was second (335.70) and Kyle Bogner was third (322.43).

Later in the meet the divers returned to the boards with the women on one-meter and the men on three-meter. The Cowgirls this time were led by Ortiz in first with a final score of 311.47, while Huth was second with a total of 268.20. The Pokes went second and third with Murdock at 356.17 and Bogner at 354.82 on three-meter.

"The Cowgirl divers were solid as usual, which they have been all year," said head coach Tom Johnson. "The men dove well but were up against a tough DU diver, Cody Stambaugh, and we competed well against him."

In the pool, the Cowgirls started the night off by winning the 200 medley relay with Kelsey Conci, Lesley Young, Shelby Bull, and Cassie Stelow. Freshman Paige Fischer came in first in the 1000 freestyle in 10 minutes, 31.93 seconds to give the Cowgirls their first individual win of the night.

The Cowgirls continued their winning ways by winning a total of 13 events. The Cowgirls had three races that ended with first and second place finishes. In the 50 freestyle, the Cowgirls won with Conci in first and Stelow close behind in second. Other one-two finishes were in 100 freestyle with Bull and Stelow, and 500 freestyle with Fischer and Stephanie Vint.

Other individual winners include Vint in both the 200 freestyle (1:53.16) and 200 IM (2:07.68), Conci in the 100 backstroke (56.70), Lesley Young in the 100 breaststroke (1:04.16) and Lauren Hewson in the 200 breaststroke (2:19.45). The Cowgirls ended the meet with a victory in the 400 freestyle relay with Bull, Caroline Wells, Conci and Stelow.

"The women were unbelievable. Vint was a hammer, winning multiple events and participating in the relays," said Johnson. "Cassie Stelow was a little disappointed with her 50 freestyle but came back with Shelby Bull and they both swam season bests in the 100 freestyle, which is good to see."

For The Cowboys won seven events and the first win of the night came from captain Brett Henehan, who captured the 200 freestyle in 1:42.73. Marshall Dilworth followed with his own first place finish in the 100 backstroke in 51.62. In the 100 freestyle, captain Tommy Gregory and Christian Johnson went first and second to give Wyoming much needed points. In the 200 breaststroke, the Pokes also went first and second with Brandon Fischer and Kendrick Bachman.
"The 200 medley relay that we were disqualified in to start the day really hurt us," said Johnson. "It cost us the meet at the end, but we still had stellar performance from Brett Henehan, Brandon Fischer and Kendrick Bachman."

Other event winners for the Cowboys included Fischer in the 100 breaststroke (56.93), Gregory in the 50 freestyle (21.27) and Nathan Fuller in an exciting 200 backstroke (1:52.56).

Wyoming returns to the pool on Friday against conference foe at UNLV, beginning at 1 p.m.