Minneapolis, Minn. (Feb. 23, 2019) – The Cowgirl swimming and diving teams wrapped up the weekend with a 743.50 points for a sixth place finish at the MW Championships on Saturday. San Diego State won the title with 1360.5 points followed by Nevada with 1261.5 and Boise State in third with 1159 points.
 
"The divers stepped up and scored big for us today with all four women getting in the scoring, especially Peyton (GrandPre) scoring sixth in the finals," said head coach Dave Denniston. "Hannah (Mclean-Leonard) had a phenomenal closing lap to take second in the 200 butterfly. Our entire team fought hard the last two days and swam a great meet. Seniors Isobel Ryan and Samantha Burke stood out as our high scorers and made this meet and year a lot of fun."
 
In the first preliminary of the day, the senior duo of Samantha Burke and Connor Tarver would punch their tickets to the finals after finishing sixth and seventh in the 200 backstroke recording times of 1:57.07 and 1:57.27 respectively. Both times would be season bests for each swimmer. In the finals, Burke would record a time of 1:56.44 to place fourth while Tarver would take seventh with a time of 1:58.28. Sophomore Katelyn Blattner would finish 12^th in the 200 backstroke with a time of 1:58.25 while senior Marcela Gramcko Wietstruck would finish 22^nd with a time of 2:01.45.
 
In the next event of the day, senior Isobel Ryan would post a time of 50.38 in the 100 freestyle prelims which would earn her a spot in the consolation finals. In the B Finals round, Ryan would record a time of 50.91 to finish 16^th. Sophomore Kristen Covello and freshman Lainee Jones would follow in 17^th and 18^th place with times of 50.83 and 50.90 respectively. Freshmen Sani Carsrud would also place in the 100 freestyle finishing in 21^st with a time of 51.04
 
After finishing 23^rd in the 100 breaststroke on Friday, sophomore Rylie Pilon would be back at it this time in the 200 breaststroke. In the prelims, Pilon recorded a time of 2:18.51 which would be a season best for her and earn her a spot in the consolation finals. In the consolation finals, Pilon would record a new season high of 2:18.03 which would place her 13^th in the event.
 
Sophomore Hannah Mclean-Leonard was back in the pool after recording a school record on Friday. She would finish with a season best time 1:59.86 in the 200 butterfly prelims to earn a spot in the finals. In the finals, she would record her second runner-up finish in as many days as she recorded a time of 1:59.22 in the finals to take second. Her finals time would also be good enough to move her up to second on the Cowgirls all-time top ten list in the event.
 
In the 1650 freestyle finals, two Cowgirls would earn top 15 finishes. Junior Daniela Luna Rocha would finish 13^th after recording a time of 16:56.86 while fellow junior Talita Te Flan would touch the wall at 17:00.15 to earn a 15^th place finish.
 
In the final relay event of the MW Championships, the team of Ryan, Jones, Covello and Burke took fourth place in the 400 freestyle relay with a time of 3:36.02.
 
In diving, the Cowgirls would close out the meet on a high note. In the platform prelims, senior Peyton GrandPre would lead the way as she scored a 226.40 in the prelims to take seventh and move onto the finals. The duo freshman McKenna Houlihan and senior CeeJay Harris would qualify for the consolation finals after finishing 12^th and 14^th respectively.  In the consolation finals, Harris would post a score of 234.65 to finish tenth overall while Houlihan would tally a score of 214.75 to finish 13^th. In the finals, GrandPre would post a score of 222.95 which would earn her sixth place.