Unbeaten Rams End Border War Drought

LARAMIE, Wyo. – If there was one meet Kristina Friedrichs wanted to win, it was Friday's.

The senior captain had never beaten rival Wyoming in Colorado State career. It was a misery she shared with a long string of senior classes and with head coach Christopher Woodard. The Border War had gone to Wyoming for 12 consecutive years, and she wanted no part in leaving without changing the narrative.

Before the season began, she targeted this particular meet at a proving ground. She knew her team was strong enough to do it, but they were going to have to prove they could overcome a mental block more than anything. As the Colorado State women's swimming and diving team has shown this year, there isn't much you can put in their way they won't push aside.

A broken pump at the pool hasn't stopped them. They've just moved their practices to a 30-meter facility with no starting blocks. The divers have had to look elsewhere to train. So be it. Bring it on.

Even a slow start to the meet wasn't an issue, as they overcame a 25-point deficit to the hosts at one point and came back to post a 152-148 victory at Laramie High School. Combined with the 227-71 win over Colorado Mesa, which was also there, the Rams pushed their dual winning streak to 13 consecutive to open the season, tying for third on the all-time list of consecutive dual wins.

"This is a pretty special moment," Friedrichs said. "I've definitely been happy. I've been happy for other people at CSU swim and dive, but this is a good one. I'm not going to forget this."

Friedrichs has three individual races on the day, and she won them all – the 50- and 100-yard freestyles and the 100 butterfly. Her only goal heading in was to give it every last ounce of what she had, and she stood up to every challenge.

Her victories in the freestyles came back to back with a break in between, and were the middle portion of a four-race run where the Rams posted victories, allowing them to overcome the gap.

"There's always a little bubbling rage beneath the surface," Woodard said of Friedrichs. "When she unleashes it, other people should watch out."

Her whole intention when she saw the lineup was to win her races. Nothing less was going to cut it for her. Not good times, not good efforts, just beating people to the wall. As the meet started, the Rams weren't doing that. Not just to win races, but to beat a Cowgirl in the lane next to them for the depth points which always add up.

As proud as she is of the way she came through, she couldn't have asked more of her team.

"I came out here to fight. I wanted to show Wyoming we're a challenge, we're a threat," she said. "I think for a long time they haven't believed it. We're just a hardy-har team they come out to beat every year, and I wanted to prove them wrong.

"This team is able to rebound so quickly. I think there were people in this pool tonight who had a race in the beginning that wasn't what they thought it was going to be, and they came back fighting. Nobody rolled over and let Wyoming walk over us. If we were taken down, we came back strong. That's what made this meet. As it went on, we didn't crumble when things went wrong, we got stronger because of them. We came around each other and pushed each other to get to that point. I am so proud of this team for how mentally strong they were tonight."

The divers proved it, too. The first board, the 3-meter, wasn't their best effort of the year. The 1-meter, they turned it around and freshman Lindsay Gizzi was the first to deal a major blow as she knocked off Melissa Mirafuentes, who was second on the board in the Mountain West last year.

As they've done all year, the freshmen contributed, with Maya White leading a 1-2 finish in the 1,000 free with Abbey Owenby, but then the Rams went cold for a spell. Wyoming built up a lead through the next three races, bringing up the 200 butterfly.

Hannah Sykes, who has been sick all week, delivered her best race when the Rams needed it, winning in a time of 2:09.35, with teammates Kendra Preski and Madison Hunter finishing 3-4 to steal away more points.

"It came from a lot of positive self-talk," she said of her race. "I know how I've been doing in practice, and I wasn't going to let two days of not feeling good affect that. I know I can do it, so it was a lot of positive self-talk and knowing the team needed it and putting aside my own goals and putting the team first. It was knowing every point counts.

"It was cool because I think everyone understood, even the freshmen, how important this was to us all, and how important every single point was going to be, because that's what it comes down to at the end of the day, points."

Liza Lunina ended the four-race run for the Rams by winning the 200 back in 2:04.06, and the Rams made a switch, pulling Maisy Barbosa out and inserting Elsa Litteken, who placed fourth. From there out, the Rams and Cowgirls bounced the lead around a bit, but Barbosa helped seal the win by following Friedrich's victory in the butterfly by pulling away for the 200 individual medley win in 2:07.25. It was her own bounce-back from her first race.

"It's all in that. My staff did an amazing job prepping them for this, keeping them laser focused and not accepting excuses," Woodard said. "They showed up and they delivered. I often don't think too much about our lineup; it's relatively straight forward. We definitely spent some time thinking about where we wanted to place kids in relation to their kids, and we did have to make some changes. Again, credit to the kids. When we tell them change is coming, to be unfazed by it. Where do you need me was the attitude."

Anika Johnson had three strong races, including placing second behind Friedrichs in the 100 fly. Olivia LeBlanc was inserted into the 500 free, and she produced a fourth-place finish with Owenby in fifth.

Barbosa's win gave the Rams some room to where all they had to do was take second in the closing 400 free relay, which the Rams did. On the deck, the team was electric. Over the course of the final four races, it was mixed with serious doses of nerves and anticipation.

As much pressure as Sykes put on herself to win her race, it was nothing like watching her teammates swim.

"I lost my voice, as you can tell," she said. "When you're not in it, it's so much more nerve-wracking. It's totally out of your control, but it's cool, because I just know how hard everyone has been working. It's a different amount of nervous."

As the team celebrated on the side, Sarah Mundy, who anchored the final relay, asked Woodard what her split was. He shot back, with a smile, "who cares? We won."

To which Mundy laughed. It was an unknown feeling for all of them, and a long time coming.

"We just wanted it. I've been here four years. We wanted it, but I think this was the first year we all kind of realized we can do it," Friedrichs said. "We have the team, we have the depth, we have the mental fortitude to challenge this team, and I think we all knew that coming into this meet. I just wanted to go for it, leave nothing behind."

Nothing except a long drought. The Rams left that in Laramie.

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Players Mentioned

Maisy Barbosa

Kristina Friedrichs

Lindsay Gizzi

Madison Hunter

Anika Johnson

Olivia LeBlanc

Elsa Litteken

Liza Lunina

Sarah Mundy

Abbey Owenby

Kendra Preski

Hannah Sykes

Maya White