Kendyll Ferrall
Kferral1@uwyo.edu
Conquering the state of New Mexico, the University of Wyoming Cowgirls swimming and diving team took down New Mexico State and Mountain West rival University of New Mexico during back-to-back meets last weekend.
Coming off of five wins at the Denver University Relays earlier this month, the Cowgirls picked up 10 wins on Friday against New Mexico State to beat the Aggies 178-122.
“We have improved a lot from the Brown and Gold and the DU Relays earlier this month,” head coach Tom Johnson said in a press release after the first dual. “We still have a few holes that we’ll deal with, but for the most part I think we raced and swam well today.”
Wyoming opened up the dual with a two-second win in the 400-yard medley relay. Seniors Emily Ridout and Molly Coons and juniors Abby Sullivan and Danielle Badger led Wyoming in its first event win, followed by seniors Emily Stucky and Emma Dow, junior Emily Stevens and freshman Samantha Burke who came in third with a time of 3:54.02.
Ridout claimed to individual victories in the 100-yard breaststroke and the 100-yard freestyle, in addition to swimming for two relay-winning teams. Ridout’s first-place finishes contributed 18 points to Wyoming’s win.
Also with two individual wins, Sullivan claimed first-place finishes in the 100-yard and 200-yard backstroke with times of 57.29 and 2:05.38, respectively.
“We still have a few holes that we’ll deal with, but for the most part I thought we raced and swam well today,” Johnson said. “We had a number of individuals that posted great times for us. Emily (Ridout) seemed to do well in every event and Samantha (Burke) had a breakout meet as a freshman, she looked great and had an outstanding day.”
Burke secured nine points for the Cowgirls after beating out New Mexico’s Rae-Rae Dydo by .41 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle. Burke came in at 24.17.
Traveling from Las Cruces, New Mexico to Albuquerque, New Mexico overnight, the Cowgirls placed another checkmark in the W column with a 17-130 over the University of New Mexico at Saturday’s meet.
Struggling during the day’s first three events, Sullivan’s first-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke marked Wyoming’s first victory over UNM. Sullivan shaved off .81 seconds between Friday and Saturday.
Despite early losses to the Lobos, Wyoming came back with three consecutive victories in the 3-meter diving, the 100-yard freestyle and 200-yard backstroke. Wyoming finished the day strong with first place finishes in the dual’s final four events the 100-yard butterfly, the 1-meter diving, the 200-yard IM and the 400-yard freestyle relay.
“I was very pleased with how the women responded to the challenge today,” Johnson said. “We struggled in the first half, but we had great senior leadership and captains that finished with a tremendous second half. The divers once again did well today and we put a lot of heat on the 400 free relay, which had a great swim to help us win it.”
Wyoming will travel to Flagstaff, Arizona next week to compete against Northern Arizona and Louisiana State.
