Colorado State Wins At Lobo Invitational

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., November 11. BY the time the Colorado State Rams were done at the New Mexico Invite there was hardly anything left to be won. Out of the 18 swimming events, the Rams won 17, allowing them to finish in 1st place with a total of 1151 points and leaving Northern Arizona in a distant second with a score of 824. Following in 3rd and 4th place were Wyoming and New Mexico scoring 634 and 596, respectively.

Earlier in the week Coach Mattos demanded leadership from the team and the seniors certainly delivered. Senior Kristen Schneider led the team winning all five of her events including the 200 Individual Medley (2:07.75), the 100 butterfly (57.75), 100 backstroke (58.49), 200 backstroke (2:06.28) and the 200 butterfly (2:08.05). Schneider’s times in the 200 Individual Medley, 200 backstroke and 100 butterfly were top times this season for the team.

Fellow CSU Senior Corinne Hofstetter also had season bests with her victories in the 1650 freestyle (17:33.38) and 500 freestyle (5:04.60). Senior Katie Peck won both the 400 IM (4:34.52) and the 100 freestyle (53.82); each was her top time of the season. Jamie Robinson, senior, won the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:24.32. Senior diver Lori Vigil also had her best meet of the season with a score of 417.30 in the 3 meter diving event.

The University of Wyoming Cowgirls were paced by senior captain Katie Haywood who swam to three top-five finishes on the weekend. Haywood started the meet with a fifth place finish in the 50 freestyle with a time of 25.08. She then swam to a fourth place finish in the 100 freestyle with a time of 54.09. Haywood also placed fifth in the 100 backstroke (1:00.57) just behind freshman Heidi Thorson (1:00.46), who placed fourth.

Thorson came away with her second top-five finish of the meet as she placed fourth in the 100 butterfly (1:00.14). Senior Ashley Mallett and freshman Lauren Beard also had top five finishes on the weekend. Mallett finished fifth in the 200 butterfly with a time of 2:12.77 and Beard swam to a fifth place time of 2:11.49 in the 200 backstroke.

Freshman Saara Haapanen had a great weekend finishing in the top five of both the 1 and 3 meter diving events. Her score of 223.65 placed her third on the 1 meter board while her score of 421.45 was good for a fourth place finish on the 3 meter board.

"I am really pleased with the way the kids swam this weekend," said UW head coach Tom Johnson. "I thought we raced really hard and did an outstanding job of stepping up and taking it to these teams.

"I think our strong performances are a testament to our improvement. Our freshmen are starting to get some experience and are feeling more comfortable and our senior leadership in Katie (Haywood) and Janelyn (Lilly) is awesome."

Name*

Email*

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use