Rams Fall in Border War Opener

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LARAMIE, Wyo. – After the start of the season, the team is going to look to begin a new streak.

Colorado State's women's swimming and diving team opened with a Border War dual with Wyoming at Laramie High School, falling in the Mountain West matchup 171-129 on Friday. The Rams entered the season unbeaten in duals the previous two campaigns, a streak of 23 which included the only tie in program history.

The Rams won the first of the 16 events in the meet, the 200-yard medley relay, but the Cowgirls touched the wall first – or scored the best on the two springboards – as Colorado State posted five more victories the rest of the way.

"The good news is there was plenty of good stuff to build on, but we made some serious mistakes, and we left some points on the table," CSU head coach Christopher Woodard said. "There were some touch outs, and overall, we probably let the nerves get to us and we made some mental mistakes and that cost us some points. We have to get back to work; there's no rest here. We need to put in the yardage, but bottom line, we have to clean up some details."

Getting touched out hurt in a big way – to the tune of 1.36 seconds over the course of nine swims costing the Rams 38 points.

The 200 medley team of Tess Whineray, Katie McClelland, Lucy Matheson and Lexie Trietley looked strong off the blocks, the quad's time of 1:42.44 just a second behind last year's best time coming at the Mountain West Championships. And the members of the relay continued to pile up some points as the meet progressed.

Whineray, a freshman out of New Zealand, won her first collegiate race, taking the 100 backstroke in a time of 56.70. She came back to take second in the 200 distance of the stroke.

"It's all new for her. Talking to her about some technique stuff in her 100 that wasn't really on and she's trying to learn her stroke count in short-course yards as opposed to short-course meters," Woodard said. "There's definitely things we can tighten up, and I think she was disappointed in her 200, which honestly is refreshing to me. That's exactly why we got her. She's someone who expects to compete and expects to win every race, and when she doesn't, there needs to be an answer. I'm really happy with her performance."

As per usual, Matheson and Trietley were first to the wall in races, the senior captain Matheson taking both butterflies, the 200 in 2:04.68, the 100 in 56.49, the latter with newcomer Rylee O'Neil in second.

Trietley won the 50 free in 23.60 – another 1-2 finish for the Rams with Megan Hager a shade behind, but for the first time in a college dual, she did not win the 100 free, clipped by .03 in the event.

The final win of the day came from grad transfer Sydney VanOvermeiren, leading to a 1-2 finish in the final individual event, the 400 individual medley with Erin Dawson. VanOvermeiren, coming over from Florida State, posted a 4:31.34.

The dual was a first look at the freshman class as well as three transfers to the roster. A trio of youngsters added to the total with Mavi Nehir Isman and Mia Axelman scoring in events, while O'Neil and VanOvermeiren would place in two each. Encouraging signs came from point additions from Maisy Barbosa and Rachel Saxon, both of whom were slowed by injuries the majority of 2022-23 with each placing in two events.

On the boards, all three CSU divers – Braeden Shaffer, Jozie Meitz and Maggie Di Scipio had top-five finishes, with Shaffer placing on both the 1- and 3-meter events.

Colorado State will have just one week to process the results and adjust as it will host Air Force and New Mexico on Friday and Saturday at EPIC. Friday's events begin at 3 p.m., Saturday at 10 a.m.

"It gives us some time to really discuss what's the tact we're going to take. I think this past week we really wanted to focus on finishing our races and that's actually where we were a little bit weaker," Woodard said. "I know that's frustrating for our staff and something we're going to continue to hammer away at. We've got four days of prep work before we hit New Mexico and Air Force, but I'm looking forward to it."

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- STALWART -

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Players Mentioned

Mia Axelman

Maisy Barbosa

Erin Dawson

Maggie Di Scipio

Katie Flynn

Megan Hager

Lucy Matheson

Jozie Meitz

Mavi Nehir Isman

Rylee O'Neil

Rachel Saxon

Braeden Shaffer

Lexie Trietley

Sydney VanOvermeiren

Tess Whineray