SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Junior Samantha Burke earned the first Mountain West title of her career in the 100 backstroke on Saturday at the 2018 Mountain West Championship at the Palo Alto College Aquatic Center. Wyoming finished the third day of competition with 657 points, trailing Boise State, Nevada and San Diego State.

Burke swam a 53.15 in the preliminary to qualify for the final. In the last event of the evening session, she swam a career-best race and clocked a 52.88 to claim the conference title. It bested her previous personal record by more than half a second and is the second-fastest time in school history. It is UW's first conference title of the 2018 championships.

The Cowgirls started the evening strong in the 400 medley relay, placing second with a season-best time of 3:36.07. Burke, senior Maria Harutjunjan, freshman Hannah Mclean-Leonard and junior Isobel Ryan comprised the team.

Junior Shannon Chelsvig was UW's top finisher in the 400 individual medley, recording a career-best time of 4:24.33 to place 13th. McLean-Leonard placed fifth in the 100 butterfly with a time of 53.79. Her prelim time of 53.57 was a career best.

Senior Kelly Sheldon picked up important points for UW in the 200 freestyle, recording a time of 1:48.95 to place eighth. Harutjunjan finished ninth in the 100 breaststroke after missing the A final with a ninth-place time in preliminaries. She swam the fourth-fastest time of the final, but could only place as high as ninth in the B Final.  

The final day of the conference championship will begin at 10 a.m. MT tomorrow with preliminary races. The platform prelims will be at 11:30 a.m. MT. The evening session with the finals of each event are set to start at 5:30 p.m.