Swimming goes 1-2 at Intermountain Shootout
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – In the first meet of the season, the Northern Colorado swimming and diving team went 1-2 in duals at the Intermountain Shootout, hosted by Colorado Mesa University. The Bears defeated the host Mavericks, 234-99 and dropped duals to Utah, 259-76 and Colorado State, 228-108.
"We're hitting our season best times already from last year, most of which were hit in the second semester," said Head Coach Kelly McClanahan. "We're miles ahead of where we were a year ago. It's been great to see the freshmen get up and swim their races the way they know how.
"What we're seeing a lot is the freshmen are really racing and aren't afraid -- especially against some big schools like Utah and CSU. Also, the returnees swam smart all the way up to the end, when they're competing in a maximum of eight events and a minimum of six events and that's exciting to see. We're right on track for where we need to be right now. It was an A+ effort and I'm really proud of the girls and where we're headed."
Friday Night Recap
In the first event of the 2011-12 season, sophomore Courtney Van Oost, sophomore Renee Stephens, sophomore Gina Riggle and senior Jennifer Smith combined for a 1:50.59 in the 200 yard medley relay to finish sixth. The time is just over a half-second off the top-10 all-time swim list.
Freshmen Casey Wolter, Jessica Reed-Baum and Kellie Burke touched the wall in 2:00.51, 2:00.66 and 2:00.71, respectively to finish 9-11 in the 200 meters in their first collegiate races.
Freshman Hannah Abelein placed fifth in the 400 IM with a time of 4:45.81, while Van Oost was right behind her in 4:47.12 and freshman Jasmine Fryrear was seventh with her time of 4:51.61.
In the 50 meter freestyle, Riggle timed a 24.86 for fifth place, while sophomore Kira Alger and Smith were seventh and eighth, respectively.
Riggle came back to finish seventh in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:09.09, while Stephens finished ninth in 1:09.71.
The 400 freestyle relay team of Van Oost, Alger, Riggle and Reed-Baum combined for a 3:42.44 to finish third overall.
Freshman Gina Cernohous and junior Tatum Boehnke were fifth and seventh, respectively in the 1650 freestyle with times of 18:16.97 and 18:30.25. Sophomore Alicen Fair also placed ninth in 18:31.71, while Hannah Halstrom was 11th with her time of 18:40.84.
In the final event of the evening, junior Sara Moldenhauer took second in the three-meter diving, scoring 241.70 points.
"Sara did really well on the three-meter board and placed ahead of five CSU girls, so that bodes really well for us for the dual later in the season," said McClanahan.
Saturday Morning Recap
"We did really well today, especially after getting in late last night and not having an ideal meal," said McClanahan. "Probably the two biggest highlights were Sara winning the one-meter in a super close race and she was just 10 points off the zone cut. Gina Riggle won the 200 breaststroke, beating out a Utah girl and pulled it out on the last turn and raced her to the wall."
The quartet of Riggle, Alger, freshman Brenna Boese and Smith took fifth in the 200 freestyle relay after swimming a 1:40.02, missing the all-time top 10 list by less than a second.
Fryrear placed fifth in the 200 butterfly in 2:20.04, while Halstrom was seventh in 2:24.99. Gregory was listed as the winner of the event in the final results, but her time listed was not within the normal results.
The trio of Abelein (1:01.71), Boese (1:01.73) and Van Oost (1:01.76) finished within 5-one-hundredths of a second of each other in the 100 backstroke for 6th-8th places.
In the next event, the 500 free, Cernohous and Wolter were 10th and 11th with times of 5:22.17 and 5:22.94, respectively.
Stephens was the top Bear finisher in the 50 breaststroke, timing a 32.93 for seventh place. Sophomore Kaitlin Sorensen also swam a 33.33 for ninth.
Van Oost started her sophomore season in much the same way as she finished her stellar freshman campaign, timing a 2:15.89 in the 200 IM for sixth place, while Abelein was eighth in 2:16.15 and Cernohous was ninth in 2:17.49.
Van Oost then swam a 2:10.50 in the 200 backstroke for fourth. Abelein (2:14.44) and Cernohous (2:15.52) also finished sixth and seventh in the same race.
The Bears again finished bunched together in the 100 free as Alger (55.44), Reed-Baum (55.56) and Boese (55.59) placed 11th-13th.
Riggle had a tremendous afternoon, winning the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:24.96, just after clocking a 1:00.84 for fourth in the 100 butterfly. Stephens also finished seventh in the 200 breaststroke in 2:34.00.
Moldenhauer came back on Saturday to win the one-meter board with a score of 255.00.
In the 800 free relay, Van Oost, Fair, Burke and Alger finished third in 8:03.02 for the team's final event in the pool.
"A perfect example of the smart swimming was in the 800 relay," said McClanahan. "We dove in about the same time as CMU tied for third place and their anchor leg blew everything she had in the first 100 and Kira (Alger) sat back and swam her race and held her pace to get us third place, behind Utah and CSU."
The Bears open the home portion of the 2011-12 on Oct. 17 when they host Nebraska-Omaha in the Butler-Hancock pool beginning at 5 pm.
