Wyoming Swimming and Diving Off to Fast Start Against Denver, BYU

* University of Wyoming press release

DENVER -- The University of Wyoming swimming and diving teams has wrapped up the first day at the University of Denver’s El Pomar Natatorium in a tri-meet with the Pioneers and BYU to start the 2024 spring season on Friday.

The team finished the opening day with five first-place finishes and first-place finish in diving. The teams also set three- top-10 (two Cowgirl and one Cowboy) marks in school history along with the Cowgirls breaking a pool record.

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“We had some phenomenal swims today,” UW head coach Dave Denniston said. “On the men’s side, Charlie Clark dominated the 400IM and Quinn Cynor had a great race in the 100 free. We swam some very fast times today and showed a lot of grit. The women are competing on a new level, and we won several races. We are still a bit behind going into tomorrow, but if we keep swimming like we did today, we will make up a lot of ground.”

The day was started with diver Alicia Gonzalez coming in first in the women’s one meter dive with a final score of 272.10 which was almost five points better than the second-place finisher.

Carly Palmer won the women’s 100-yard freestyle with a time of 49.82 for the fifth fastest time in UW history, and Tara Joyce, took second place with a time of 49.95 for sixth all-time at UW. Heidi Billings won the women’s 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:00.37. Maisyn Klimczak won the women’s 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:54.24. Brynlee Busskohl took second in the women’s 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:15.63.

Quinn Cynor won the men’s 100-yard freestyle with a time of 44.62 for ninth all-time at Wyoming. In the men’s 400-yard individual medley, Charlie Clark won with a time of 3:56.02. Gavin Smith took second in the men’s 100-yard butterfly with a time of 48.03. Clark finished second in the men’s 500-yard freestyle.

In relay action, the Cowgirls’ relay team of Carly Palmer, Kali Franckowiak, Veronika Ozimek. and Tara Joyce took first place in the women’s 400-yard freestyle relay with a pool record time of 3:21.58. In addition, the Cowgirls’ relay team of Emily Giles, Carly Palmer, Kali Franckowiak, and Lauren Swartz finished second in the women’s 200-yard medley relay with a final time of 1:40.56.

On the men’s side, the Cowboys relay team of Quinn Cynor, John Wargin, Gavin Smith, and Matthew Lang took second place with a final time of 1:27.95.

In the team portion of the event, the Cowboys trail both BYU and Denver, but are within striking distance. The Cowgirls lead have a solid lead over BYU and trail Denver by a slim margin.

The final day of this tri-meet is set to get underway tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. and diving at 2 p.m.