Utah Tops Wyoming Women and Men at Ute Natatorium

LARAMIE, WY, January 28. BOTH the University of Wyoming men’s and women’s swimming and diving team’s lost to Utah in Mountain West Conference dual action, Friday night at the Ute Natatorium in Salt Lake City, Utah, reported the Cowboys.

The Cowboys won the first three events of the dual, then dropped the next five and were never able to recover as the Utes defeated the Cowboys, 133-122. With the loss, the Cowboys drop to 4-2 overall and 1-1 in the MWC.

The Cowboys started the dual with a first place finish in the 400 medley relay as freshman Carl Marais, senior Scott Usher, junior Gene Birks and senior Grant Kritzinger swam to a time of 3:22.79. Freshman Henry Holmberg followed suit with the first of his two event victories, as he won the 1000 freestyle. He swam to a first place time of 9:47.25, winning the event by more than 10 seconds. Marais then won the 200 freestyle touching in at a time of 1:42.23. The Pokes lost the next five events before Marais returned to the pool for the 200 backstroke. He won the event, swimming to a time of 1:51.99. Holmberg followed with a first place swim in the 500 freestyle with a time of 4:40.22. The final Cowboy win came from Usher in the 200 breaststroke as he cruised to a first place time of 2:00.38.

The Cowgirls fell to the Mountain West Conference’s top-ranked Utes by a score of 92-146 and fell to 3-3 overall and 2-2 in MWC dual
action.

The Cowgirls took just two events from the Utes on the night, the 200 breaststroke and the 3-meter diving board. In the 200 breaststroke, junior Alex Leziy-Miller swam to a first place time of 2:24.44. Freshman newcomer from the Netherlands Ginni van Katwijk, who joined the Cowgirls at the semester, won her first college event as she won the 3-meter diving competition. She dove to a score of 270.30.

“The men started out really well and won the first three events before we got into a little trouble and got touched out in the 50 free,” said UW head coach Tom Johnson. “We struggled in a couple of events after that but I am proud of the effort we gave.

“The women ran into a very tough and very deep Utah team tonight but we still did some good things. We have to dust ourselves off and get ready for BYU tomorrow.”

The swimming and diving team will return to action tomorrow afternoon as they travel to Provo, Utah to take on BYU. The dual is set to begin at 12 p.m. .

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