Wyoming Heads to Oklahoma City for Mountain West Titles

LARAMIE, WY, February 21. THE 2005 Mountain West Conference Swimming and Diving Championships begin this Wednesday at the Oklahoma City Community College in Oklahoma City, Okla, per Cowboy sources.

The championships will run from Wednesday until Saturday. The Cowboys enter the championships as the third seeded men’s team as they finished the year with a 2-2 MWC dual mark. The Cowgirls finished fourth in the conference this year with a 4-3 dual record.

A pair of Cowboys will be defending their MWC Championships from last year in senior Scott Usher and junior Gene Birks. Usher won both the 100 and 200 breaststrokes while Birks won the 100 butterfly. Usher was named the MWC men’s swimmer of the year and UW head coach Tom Johnson was named the MWC Coach of the year following last year’s championships.

Sophomore Saara Haapanen was the highest Cowgirl finisher in last year’s championships as she placed third on the 1-meter diving board. Sophomore Lauren Beard scored the most points for the Cowgirls at last year’s championships as she helped earn 67 teams points.

The Cowboys are looking to improve on their fifth place finish at the 2004 MWC Championships while the Cowgirls look to improve on a sixth place finish from a year ago. BYU has won both the men’s and women’s MWC Swimming and Diving Championships in all five year’s of the conference’s existence.

Remaining Schedule

Wed.- Sat.
Feb. 23-26 Mountain West Conference All Day
Swimming and Diving Championships
Oklahoma City, Okla.
Sat.-Sun.

Mar. 5-6 Last Chance NCAA Qualifier TBA
Thur.- Sat.

Mar. 10-12 NCAA Zone “E” Diving All Day
Championships
Thur.- Sat.

Mar. 17-19 NCAA Women’s Swimming and All Day
Diving Championships
West Lafayette, Ind.
Thur.- Sat.

Mar. 24-26 NCAA Men’s Swimming and All Day
Diving Championships
Minneapolis, Minn.

Lehnertz Named MWC Swimmer of the Week
Wyoming sophomore Tamara Lehnertz was named Mountain West Conference Women’s Swimmer of the Week, following UW’s final dual meet of the season. Lehnertz garnered her first career accolade. Lehnertz, from Littleton, Colo., helped the Cowgirls to conference wins over Colorado State and Air Force last week, sweeping the 100 and 200-yard freestyle events and helping Wyoming to two relay victories.

Against Colorado State, she began the meet winning the 100 free (53.41) and 200 free (1:55.81) and helped the 200-yard freestyle relay team to a first-place finish (1:37.10), as the Cowgirls defeated the Rams in Fort Collins for the first time ever in a dual meet.

Lehnertz followed with wins in the 100 free (53.84) and 200 free (1:56.75) at Air Force, and was a part of the 400-yard freestyle relay squad that brought home a win (3:38.54).

Cowboy Dual Record
Overall: 5-3
MWC: 2-2
Cowgirl Dual Record
Overall: 5-4
MWC:4-3

Final Regular Season Mountain West
Conference Standings:

MEN
Team W L Pct
Utah 3 1 .750
BYU 3 1 .750
Wyoming 2 2 .500
Air Force 1 3 .250
UNLV 1 3 .250

WOMEN
Team W L Pct
Utah 7 0 1.000
UNLV 6 1 .857
BYU 5 2 .714
Wyoming 4 3 .571
Colorado State 3 4 .429
New Mexico 2 5 .286
San Diego State 1 6 .143
Air Force 0 7 .000

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