LARAMIE, Wyo. (Feb. 16, 2021) – The Cowgirl Swimming and Diving teams will return to the pool this week to compete at the 2021 Mountain West Championship. The four-day meet is scheduled to begin on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. MT at the Buchanan Natatorium in Las Vegas for swimming. The divers will be back in Colorado Springs, on Thursday, Feb. 18, at the Cadet Natatorium.
 
"We are excited to be at this point in the season and the women look really sharp right now," head coach Dave Denniston said. "We want to build off of last year and try to place in the top two as a team. A big part of our success this year is due to the freshmen class and our strong senior leadership. In a year of constant unknowns, they have been incredibly reliable. There should be several new school records at the end of Saturday."
 
The Cowgirls finished the dual season with a 6-3 overall record and 4-1 in the MW. They will be looking to improve on its third place finish from a season ago after tallying 903 points. They placed behind San Diego State who took home the title after scoring 1,463.50 points followed by Nevada with 1,015.50 points. On the year, the Cowgirls competed against Air Force, Colorado State and UNLV in the league.
 
Wyoming has 11 competitors currently ranked in the top ten in the conference in at least one event, among those is Katelyn Blattner. The senior from Wichita, Kan. is the defending champion in the 200 and 500 freestyle, while being ranked first and second in each respective event. She is third in the 200 backstroke and seventh in the both the 50 and 100 backstroke. Blattner is the current school record holder in the 500 free with a time of 4:45.39, second in the 200 free with a mark of 1:47.35 and third in the 200 backstroke with a time of 1:56.13.  
 
Fellow senior Hannah Mclean-Leonard will be another competitor to watch at the MW Championships as she is ranked first in the conference in the 100 butterfly with a time of 53.78. She is also ranked fifth in the 200 butterfly with a season-best time of 2:04.33 and seventh in the 200 IM (2:05.71). Last year at the conference championships, she finished in the runner-up spot in the 100 fly and broke the school record with a time of 52.70 in the event.
 
Junior Lainee Jones enters the meet with the fourth best times in the 100 and 200 freestyle with times of 51.10 and 1:50.27. Fellow junior Maggie Clerkin is sixth in the 1000 free (10:26.26) and seventh in the 1650 free (17:27.55). Sophomore Roxanna Ramirez is second in the 1650 freestyle with her time of 17:10.81, ninth in the 400 IM (4:30.87) and tenth in the 1000 free (10:33.70).
 
Senior Rylie Pilon is ranked tenth in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:04.46. She is eighth all-time in the 100 breaststroke and tenth in the 200 breaststroke in school history. Fellow senior Kristen Covello sits third in the 500 free with a season-best time of 4:53.11 Freshman Sage Morton is second in the 1000 free with a time of 10:20.12 and fourth in the 1650 free with a mark of 17:16.15.
 
Juniors Sani Carsrud and Erin Eccleston are both seeded in an even. Carsrud is eighth in the 100 free with a time of 51.39, while Eccleston is seventh in the 400 IM in a time of 4:30.06. Freshman Britt Nichols sits in seventh in the 1000 free with a posted time of 10:29.83.
 
On the diving side of the competition, the Cowgirls will be led by sophomore Melissa Mirafuentes. She returns to the championship meet as the defending champ in the platform. In the 3-meter, she recorded a school-record score of 378.00 to finish second while finishing out of the top eight in the 1-meter. This season, she has earned MW Diver of the Week three times which included a three board sweep at the Air Force Invite. Her top scores on the year are 313.50 in the 1-meter, 317.65 in the three-meter and 246.50 on the platform.  
 
Junior McKenna Houlihan recorded a season-best score of 259.05 against Hawaii and UNLV in the 1-meter. Her best scores are 270.00 in the 3-meter and a mark of 221.80 in the platform. Senior Abigail Zoromski had her top score in the 3-meter at the Air Force Invite with a mark of 229.50, while her best 1-meter showing was at the same event with a score of 238.80. Sophomore Makena Sanger had her best showing at the dual meet against Hawaii and UNLV. She finished with career-best in the 1-meter (209.00) and 3-meter (216.85).