The Colorado State Rams will visit Wyoming for their first road dual meet of the season on Friday. The meet is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. MT, and is the second meet against a Mountain West foe for the Rams this season.
CSU is 0-2 on the season, dropping their first two dual meets at home against New Mexico and Denver. The Rams have been led by their strong diving group, paced by senior Ariana Milone, who earned the first Mountain West Diver of the Week award on Oct. 20. Milone has already qualified for NCAA Zones in both the 1-Meter and 3-Meter springboard events. Senior Jessica Shepard has been strong in the pool for CSU, boasting the league’s ninth-best time in the 100 Backstroke and the 12th in the 200 Backstroke.
Wyoming is 2-0 in dual meets this season, defeating both New Mexico State and New Mexico. Molly Coonce led the Cowgirls against New Mexico, claiming first in the 100 Butterfly with the seventh-best time in school history. Emily Ridout has also been strong for Wyoming, tallying four wins at New Mexico State, including two relays.
The two teams met in CSU’s home opener a year ago, with Wyoming leaving Fort Collins with a 183-110 victory. Shepard starred for the Rams in that meet, earning CSU’s lone victory with a win in the 100 Backstroke. The Rams took second place in 13 of the 15 other events, including strong efforts from Katie Kicklighter (50 and 100 Freestyle) and Tess Simpson (100 Breaststroke and 100 Butterfly).
CSU Head Coach Christopher Woodard wants his team to be assertive this weekend, and is hoping his squad will continue to show improvements in the pool.
“I think we’ve done a lot of good work in the last couple of weeks,” Woodard said. “My expectations are to see some aggressive swims. It’s always tough swimming up in Laramie, but we don’t use that as an excuse. I expect the girls to get out early in races and contend.
“I think we’ve seen some more improvements in terms of our training than maybe our racing so far,” Woodard continued. “That’s not wholly unexpected. I’m hoping the changes that we’re seeing in our training will bear some results this week.”
MILONE NAMED MOUNTAIN WEST DIVER OF THE WEEK (Oct. 20)
Senior Ariana Milone earned the first Diver of the Week award in the Mountain West for 2015-16 after having a pair of stellar weeks to open the season. She won five of her first six diving events over the team’s first three meets of the season. Of her five wins, four of her scores qualify her for NCAA Zones, including both the 1-Meter and 3-Meter springboard events. The Woodlands, Texas, native won all three 3-Meter events, posting a top score of 329.93 in CSU’s dual meet against Denver on Friday. She also won two of the three 1-Meter events she competed in, tallying a top score of 290.55 in CSU’s season-opener against New Mexico.
UP NEXT
The Rams will compete at the Phil Hansel Invite hosted by Houston, Nov. 19-21. The event will include Rice, Idaho, North Texas, New Mexico State, Tulane, Northern Colorado, UC Davis, Oregon State and Houston.
RAMS FALL TO DENVER AT HOME, 189-111 (Oct. 16)
Emily Williams, Ariana Milone and Jess Shepard all won events as the Colorado State swimming and diving squad fell at Moby Pool to Denver, 189-111, on Oct. 16. The Rams swept both diving events on the day, with Emily Williams winning her first event of the season in the 1-Meter, posting a score of 262.65. Ariana Milone took second with a 250.80. Two divers swapped places in the 3-Meter event, with Milone winning with a season-best score of 329.93 and Williams taking the runner-up spot with 246.90. Jess Shepard captured a win in the 50 Backstroke, winning by .02 with a time of 26.75. Tonicia Thomas took third in the event. Multiple Rams took second-place finishes. Cristina Bassani placed second in the 50 Breaststroke, Megan Lloyd was second in the 200 Butterfly, Katie Kicklighter took second in the 50 and 100 Freestyle, Thomas was runner-up in the 200 Backstroke, Jenna Beaury was second in the 200 Breaststroke and Karin Roh placed second in the 50 Butterfly. CSU’s A teams also took second in both the 400 Medley Relay and the 200 Free Relay.
RAMS FALL IN NAILBITER TO NEW MEXICO (Oct. 8)
It came down to the final event, but the Colorado State swimming and diving squad fell to the New Mexico Lobos, 156-144, in the team’s season-opening meet at Moby Pool on Oct. 8. Junior Allie Jacobs won the 400 IM (4:35.02), while Mackenzie Halligan took third and Gianna Salanitro placed fourth. Still trailing, but within a narrow enough margin to be able to win, the Rams entered the final event with hope for a victory. Ultimately, the Lobos top 200 Freestyle Relay squad would clinch the meet victory for the Lobos, with CSU’s teams placing second and third in the event. CSU’s divers had a strong opening meet, with senior Ariana Milone winning in both the 1-Meter and 3-Meter events. Junior Emily Williams had a runner-up result in the 1-Meter while placing third in the 3-Meter. The Rams got off to a good start to the meet. After Milone’s win in the 3-Meter dive, CSU’s 200 Medley Relay A team, consisting of Jess Shepard, Cristina Bassani, Carmen Mand and Katie Kicklighter, won the opening swimming event (1:45.48).
Head Coach Chris Woodard said after the meet, “I think there’s plenty of potential. I don’t think we’ve seen anywhere near our best. In fact, a lot of our top performers, they struggled a little bit. They swam well, but maybe not as well as they hoped.”
CSU PICKS UP NUMEROUS WINS AT INTERMOUNTAIN SHOOTOUT
The Rams picked up 10 wins at the Intermountain Shootout, taking place Oct. 9-10. The meet was hosted by Colorado Mesa University and also featured BYU, who posted the top score of the meet.
Although the Rams feel they did not have their best weekend up in Grand Junction, there is a lot of optimism for the season ahead. “We’re obviously not happy with the result, but it more great exposure to another quality team and I really, firmly believe that when we start getting healthy and back together as a full unit that we are going to be pretty tough,” Woodard said afterwards.
SEASON OUTLOOK – Expectations
CSU is coming off its second-straight winning season, going 5-4 in dual meets last season. The Rams are aiming to continue to rise in the conference, and will lean on their young talent to do so.
“I think the expectations for us are definitely to improve,” Head Coach Chris Woodard said. “We landed a great recruiting class and so far we’ve been really impressed by our freshmen in our work outs. We lost a very good senior class, but our hope is that most of our talent is young and with another season of experience, we will be a much tougher team. The expectations are just to compete. We don’t know where we sit, but we will find out real soon.”
ON THE NEWCOMERS
The Rams are anticipating a lot of production out of their talented freshmen this season.
“I think all of the newcomers have impressed as far as their discipline in the water,” Woodard said. “The biggest standouts on the swimming side are Tonicia Thomas and Mackenzie Halligan. Mackenzie comes with a pretty big resume and we knew Tonicia was talented, but she has taken over leading sets in work outs and has been a vocal leader. We have been very impressed with those two.”
ALL-CONFERENCE RETURNEES
CSU boasted three all-conference performers last season – Katie Kicklighter (50-yard freestyle), Ariana Milone (1-meter springboard, 3-meter springboard) and Tess Simpson (100-yard backstroke). Both Kickligher and Milone return this season, and will figure to lead the Rams yet again.
Milone’s importance on the boards will be huge all season.
“She’s one of the best in the conference and one of the best in the nation,” Woodard said of Milone. “She will continue to lead and after last year, breaking both school records, she’s coming in on a high note and she is ready to rip for her senior year.”
Kicklighter, just a sophomore this season, will look to secure a lot of points in the pool this season.
“She sets the tone,” Woodard said of Kicklighter. “A lot of other athletes just look to her to lead the way and score some serious points and she rarely disappoints.”
ON THE BOARDS
Milone will certainly be productive for the Rams in her senior year, but there are still some personnel questions with a trio of freshmen entering the fold in 2015-16.
“It’s tough to lose a leader like Mary Kate Hardy, but Emily Williams is a great veteran who always gets results for us,” Woodard said. “It’s a new bag with three freshmen, who are all very talented and raw in their own way. I have no doubt that Kevin Witt will have them ready by the end of the season and they’re probably going to be scoring points for us. We will find out against New Mexico, who has traditionally been one of the better diving teams in the conference.”
SEASON GOALS
Although the Rams had a winning dual meet record for the second-consecutive year, the Rams wound up taking 10th at the Mountain West Championship. CSU will aim to not sacrifice any success in the regular season while still climbing the league leaderboard at the end of the season.
“That’s been a real sticking point for us,” Woodard said. “We had some postseason success early when I was here, but then we realized we were sacrificing the entire season to get there. This year, I think the team has a little more depth and a little more toughness, so that we can swim tired and still get some wins. If we do that, we won’t get away too much from our training and focus for the offseason. We just have to have fun and relax and once we get to conference, and if we swim with a little attitude and with a chip on our shoulder and not be so intense.”
Swimming news courtesy of Colorado State Swimming & Diving.