Swimming splits meets in Utah

The CSU’s swimming and diving team faced off against Brigham

Young and Utah on Jan. 17 and 18 coming away with a victory and a

loss. The Rams beat quite possibly the strongest competition they

have in BYU, but lost to Utah the next day because of fatigue and

injuries.

The Rams defeated BYU in Provo, Utah, by winning the competitive

races. The team won seven events by less than one second en route

to its 191-109 victory. The Rams won the 200-meter medley relay, 50

freestyle, 200 freestyle, 100 backstroke, 200 backstroke, 200

breaststroke and 200 freestyle relay, with less than one second

separating first place from second place.

Another big contributor to the Rams’ victory was senior diver

Lori Vigil who won both the 1- and 3-meter diving events. Vigil’s

sweep of both events made her the first Ram to accomplish that feat

in a dual meet against BYU.

Unfortunately winning the tough meets comes with an even tougher

price. The Rams lost two swimmers against BYU.

“Two of our best swimmers went down at BYU,” said head coach

John Mattos. “Kristin Schneider had food poisoning and Lyndsey

McCaslin had stomach cramps also possibly caused by food

poisoning.”

Neither of the swimmers could contribute against Utah. Both were

pulled after trying to swim when it became obvious that they were

too sick to compete. Schneider finished fourth in the 200

breaststroke before withdrawing from competition.

The Rams (4-1) won only five of the 13 events against Utah

losing their first conference meet of the season by a score of

128-109.

“We knew we would have a tough go against Utah,” Mattos said.

“We knew that we would pay a price traveling by van, but we

performed well. Utah did a great job and deserved the win. Though I

wish we could have went up against Utah at 100 percent.”

Attempting to pick up the slack for the absent Schneider and

McCaslin were seniors Corinne Hofstetter and Jamie Robinson.

Hofstetter won the 200 butterfly with a time of 2 minutes, 8.83

seconds, while Robinson won the 200 breaststroke in 2:21.72.

The Rams shouldn’t have any trouble returning to form. They have

a meet against the University of Denver Saturday at Moby Pool and

Mattos believes that as long as everyone is healthy the team will

still be a force to reckon with.

“We’ll have no problem bouncing back; we’re already back,” he

said.