Minneapolis, Minn. (Feb. 22, 2019) – Senior
Isobel Ryan took her first Mountain West title of her career in the 100 backstroke on Friday night at the 2019 Championships. It's the first time since Kelsey Conci won back to back titles in the backstroke event during the 2011 and 2012 seasons. Fellow senior
Samantha Burke won the title a year ago.
Wyoming moved into sixth place after the third day of competition at the MW Championships. The Cowgirls have 456.5 points while San Diego State stormed out front and leads the field with 924 points. Nevada sits in second place with 862.5 points and the defending champion Boise State Broncos are third with 740.
"The Cowgirls had a breakout day today. We had PR's from most of the women in the events they swam," head coach
Dave Denniston said. "The top highlight was Isobel's 100 backstroke victory, followed closely by Hannah's (Mclean-Leonard) new school record in the 100 butterfly. Samantha (Burke) and Isobel both got up for the 200 free relay less than 15 minutes after their race to help the team earn a sixth place finish. Freshman standout
Lainee Jones went fast in her 200 freestyle and is getting better every day. Our best day of competition is tomorrow. I expect the team to move up and swim even faster than today."
Ryan swam at 52.96 in the preliminary to place second and qualify for the final. In the last event of the evening session, she broke her previous mark with a career-best race and clocked a 52.66 to claim the conference title. It is the second-fastest time in school history and UW's first conference title of the 2019 championships. Burke who was fourth in the morning swim with a time of 53.91, placed sixth in the finals with a time of 54.12. Fellow senior
Connor Tarver placed 14
th with a time of 55.17.
Earlier in the day, sophomore
Hannah Mclean-Leonard recorded a school and career record time of 52.96 in the 100 butterfly to place third in the preliminaries. She broke the mark of 53.33 set by Molly Coonce in 2015. Mclean-Leonard followed that up 53.21 in the finals just shy of Vincent from Boise State to place second.
The day started off in the 400 individual medley. Freshman
Erin Eccleston secured a 15
th place finish and a spot in the consolation finals with a time of 4:25.73. Senior
Shannon Chelsvig would follow with a season best time of 4:26.12 in 17
th place, while freshman
Catriona Clarke clocked a 4:27.60 to secure a 21
st place spot and a personal best time. Eccleston would follow that up with a career-time of 4:22.19 and moved up to 12
th place. Chelsvig and Clarke would earn points for the Cowgirls taking 21
st and 24
th, respectively.
In the 200 freestyle, freshman
Lainee Jones qualified for her first career finals. She would touch the wall in a career-best 1:48.58 to finish sixth. Sophomore
Katelyn Blattner would follow behind her in 11
th place with a season best time of 1:49.53. Freshman
Sani Carsrud and sophomore
Kristen Covello joined their teammates by earning a season and personal best time of 1:51.48 and season-best of 1:51.49, respectively. Jones would post a time of 1:48.71 in the finals which would earn her a sixth place finish and All-Conference honors. Sophomore
Rylie Pilon was the only Cowgirl to place in the 100 breaststroke with a mark of 1:04.87.
In the last event of the day, the team of Burke, Ryan, Carsrud and Mclean-Leonard recorded a season best time of 1:32.39 in the 200 freestyle relay which would earn them an sixth place finish in the event.
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.
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