2024 MOUNTAIN WEST CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, February 21 – Saturday, February 24, 2024
- CRWC Natatorium, Houston, Texas
- Defending champion: San Diego State (2x)
- Live Results
- Championship Central
- Psych Sheet
- Day 1 Results|Day 1 Recap
TEAM SCORES
- San Diego State – 568
- UNLV – 484.5
- Nevada – 356
- Colorado State – 336
- Fresno State – 313.5
- San Jose State – 289
- Wyoming – 266
- Air Force – 260
- New Mexico – 214
The tone of the 2024 Mountain West Championships shifted yesterday when news broke that 3 members of Wyoming’s swimming and diving program perished in a car crash in Northern Colorado. According to the most recent reports, the victims were an 18-year-old female, a 21-year-old male, and a 22-year-old male, all 3 of whom were Wyoming student athletes. There were two other Wyoming men’s swimmers injured in the crash, who are being treated for non-life-threatening injuries currently. Our hearts go out to the Wyoming swimming and diving community in the face of this terrible incident.
Of course, many of the Wyoming swimmers did not end up competing in last night’s finals, but a few did, and I would like to highlight a couple of those swims before getting into the rest of the day’s recap. Freshman Tara Joyce went out and won the ‘B’ final of the 500 free, swimming a 4:49.59. She bettered her prelims swim of 4:52.61 by more than 3 seconds and finished just off her career best of 4:49.32, which she set earlier this season. Junior Kayla Cunningham came in 13th in the 200 IM last night, setting a new career best of 2:02.74. Fellow junior Bryn Busskohl did the same, taking 18th in the 200 IM with a 2:03.36, which blew away her previous career best of 2:05.19.
Through day 2 of the meet, San Diego State has expanded their lead in team scoring. The won the relay of the day, the 400 medley, by a comfortable margin. Abby Storm (53.45), Moa Bergdahl (59.51), Alex Roberts (51.88), Meredith Smithbaker (48.81) combined for a 3:33.65, finishing 1st by well over 2 seconds. Other notable splits in the field include Scarlett Ferris, who led off Nevada’s team in a very speedy 52.14 100 back. Also, UNLV’s Pilar Cohen was 48.88 on UNLV’s anchor, marking the 2nd-fastest free split in the field, only to Smithbaker.
Speaking of, Meredith Smithbaker was the champion in the 50 free last night, clocking a 22.24. UNLV freshman Fernanda Mendez was right behind Smithbaker, swimming a 22.39 for 2nd. With Mendez being only a freshman, we can look forward to another great race between these two stars at next year’s meet.
San Diego State also picked up a win in 3-meter diving, seeing Valentina Lopez post a final score of 374.20 to claim victory.
UNLV’s Ruby Howell had arguably the best performance of the night, taking the 200 IM in a sizzling 1:56.67. With the performance, the senior broke the Mountain West Conference record in the event, taking down the previous mark of 1:56.95, which had stood since 2014. Howell was nothing short of exceptional throughout the race, especially on the back half. She was out in 54.83 on the first 100 off 25.95 and 28.88 fly and back splits, then put up a phenomenal 33.50 on breast, and came home in 28.34 on free, for a 1:01.84 on the 2nd 100.
Coloradao State earned a win in the 500 free, where junior Erin Dawson touched 1st in 4:43.76. She was locked in a tight race with Nevada’s Frederica Kizek throughout the race. In fact, Kizek led Dawson through the 350-mark, after which Dawson edged in front, then slowly grew the lead through the last few laps. In the end, Kizek would finish 2nd in 4:44.85.