Houston, Texas (Feb. 28, 2019) – TThe Cowboy Swimming and Diving teams remain in second place after two days of competition at the WAC Championship. Wyoming has 259 points while Grand Canyon University continues to lead the way with 284 points. UNLV follows in third with 230 points while Air Force is right on its heels with 229 points.
"Our swimmers are doing a fantastic job taking care of business in the morning," head coach
Dave Denniston said. "We had 13 individuals get second opportunities to swim tonight, more than any other team. Diving continues to be clutch for us as Ryan (Russi) is battling on every dive. There's great energy on the pool deck and we aren't letting up."
The 500 freestyle would prove to be a strong event on the day for the Cowboys. In the prelims, freshman
Ryan Netzel would finish fourth with a time of 4:26.00 which at the time would be a personal best. The duo of juniors
Seth Borgert and
Jacob Harlan took fifth and seventh with times of 4:26.10 and 4:28.90 respectively to put three Cowboys into the finals. Freshman
Miller Browne and senior
Loren Sether would also qualify for the consolation finals. During the evening session, Netzel would record a new personal best of 4:24.42 on his way to a third place finish. His time would also move him into fourth on the Cowboys all-time top ten list. Harlan and Borgert recorded the fifth and sixth best times touching in 4:27.11 and 4:28.59, respectively. In the consolation finals, Browne and Sether would finish 14th and 15th with times of 4:32.79 and 4:33.21.
In the 200 IM, a duo of Cowboys would qualify for the finals as sophomore
Brayden Love finished fifth in the prelims with a time 1:48.30 while freshmen
James Bouda would take eighth with a time of 1:49.23. Senior
Liam Holt, junior
Tyler Klatt and sophomore
Mitchell Hovis would all qualify for the consolation finals. In the finals, Love and Bouda would finish in seventh and eighth place respectively posting times of 1:48.67 and 1:50.33. Klatt placed tenth with a time of 1:49.43, Hovis touched the wall in a time of 1:49.93 and Holt would come in 15
th with a time of 1:50.85.
Junior
PJ Musser, freshman
Grant Sloan and senior
David Murphy would all qualify for the consolation finals of the 50 free with ninth, tenth and 15
th finishes, respectively. Musser would record a time of 20.26 which would be a season best time and earn him a tenth place finish. Murphy and Sloan would place 13
th and 14
th with times of 20.58 and 20.59.
In the lone relay race of the night, the team of Musser, Bouda, Sloan and Murphy would record a season best time of 1:20.52 to earn a fourth place finish in the 200 freestyle relay.
On the boards, the Cowboys would find more success as the divers competed in the 3-meter event. Senior
Ryan Russi would once again lead the way taking second in the prelims with a score of 308.65. Freshman
Brendan Byrnes would also qualify for the finals after taking sixth in the prelims with a score of 275.75. Sophomore
Elijah Chan would compete in the consolation finals after taking tenth in the prelims with a score of 249.30. Chan would record a season-best score of 265.50 which would be good enough to earn him 11
th place overall. In the finals, Russi would record a career-high score of 342.05 to equal his second place finish from the previous day while Byrnes would record a career-high score of 271.45 to finish in seventh place.
The Cowboys will back in action tomorrow as they will compete in the 400 IM, 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle 100 breaststroke, 100 back and the 400 medley relay. The diving squad will have the day off but will compete in the platform event on Saturday.
Follow @wyo_swimdive for updates and live stats.
