Cowgirl Swimming and Diving Beats New Mexico in Season Opener

LARAMIE, WYO, October 22. UNIVERSITY of Wyoming Cowgirl swimming and diving team started the 2004-05 season with a bang by defeating New Mexico 147.50-95.50 in their first dual meet of the season, Thursday evening at Corbett Pool, per university reports.

The Cowgirls swam to first place finishes in eight of 13 events, including both the 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays. The Cowgirl 200 medley relay team of Heidi Thorson, Erin Spadinger, Lindsey Russenberger and Katie Bigger started things off by winning the first swimming event of the day in a time of 1:51.11. Holly Hansen stepped up and won the second event of the day, the 1000 freestyle in a time
of 11:01.42.

Cowgirl Alex Leziy-Miller swam to first place finishes in both the 200 IM and the 100 breaststroke in respective times of 2:13.29 and 1:07.77. Other first place finishes came from Thorson in the 100 butterfly (58.72), Tamara Lehnertz in the 100 freestyle (53.76) and Rachel Leyes in the 100 backstroke (1:00.77).

New Mexico’s Becca Barras won both boards of diving scoring 288.60 on the 3-meter and 261.00 on the 1-meter. Cowgirl Saara Haapanen placed second on both boards with scores of 259.05 on the 3-meter and 237.44 on the 1-meter.

The Cowgirl 200 freestyle relay team of Lehnertz, Bigger, Russenberger and Kenzie Kotby won the 200 freestyle in a time of 1:39.16 to put an exclamation point on the dual win.

“I am very pleased with our performance today, the girls really stepped up and had a great meet,” said UW head coach Tom Johnson.
“We swam times today that we didn’t swim at the end of the season last year and that is really exciting. We have some things to work on and we can get better but overall I am very happy with the way we swam.

“Alex Leziy-Miller showed her leadership today by winning two events and Heidi Thorson swam an awesome 100 fly which is her fastest time ever as a Cowgirl. Hopefully we can build on this momentum and continue to improve tomorrow and Saturday.”

The Cowgirls will return to action tomorrow as they join the Cowboys to travel to Fort Collins, Colo. for the CSU Early Bird Invite. The invite will run tomorrow and Saturday and will take place at the Edora Pool and Ice Center in Ft. Collins.

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