LARAMIE – A fish out of water a little too much.
 
That's how Tom Johnson, Wyoming's head swimming coach from 1998-2017, initially viewed Kelsey Conci during the recruiting process.
 
Growing up in rural Craig, Colo., without a year-round swimming program, Conci ran cross country in the fall to stay in shape for the winter swimming season. Sometimes she and her twin sister, Caitlin, would compete with the boys team or drive to Steamboat to swim with a club team in the hot springs to maintain their form.
 
The Conci sisters also attended summer swimming camps at UW, where their grandparents, parents and two older sisters all went to school.
 
"It was just kind of automatic," Kelsey said of her decision to swim for the Cowgirls. "I guess it was a very easy choice to go there with the Alumni Scholarship, and then I got recruited by TJ."
 
It wasn't automatic for Caitlin, who decided to compete at North Dakota, where she placed 10^th in the 100-yard butterfly at the WAC championships as a senior.
 
Kelsey, a member of the 2024 UW Intercollegiate Hall of Fame class, was a comfortable fish in the Corbett Pool where she quickly developed into one of the greatest swimmers to ever wear the brown and gold.
 
Johnson knew he had something special when Kelsey finished her freshman season with the second-fastest times in school history in the 50 freestyle and 100 backstroke.
 
"She improved so much, so fast," Johnson said. "Sometimes you get a kid, who I saw was under recruited and underdeveloped, and she had good athletic skills. She ran cross country, she was fit, and it was just an opportunity being at the university for her to swim more than she ever had in her life."
 
At the 2010 Mountain West championships, Kelsey placed third in the 100 backstroke with a time of 54.68 seconds, which broke an 18-year-old school record held by UW Hall of Famer Norma Hughes. She also placed fourth in the 50 freestyle, third in the 100 freestyle and helped the Cowgirls win the 200 and 400 freestyle relays en route to a second-place finish for the team, which is the highest in program history.
 
"She had so many friends on the team. That team was really close," Johnson said. "They were a great bunch of women to work with and a lot of fun. They had a lot of fun to away from the pool together, too. They were very close knit."
 
Kelsey emerged on the national scene as an upperclassman. During her junior season, she did not lose the 100 backstroke at any dual meet, and the team was also undefeated in the 200 medley relay while compiling an 11-4 record, including defeating Nebraska in Lincoln.
 
At the 2011 Mountain West championships, Kelsey placed seventh in the 50 freestyle, third in the 100 freestyle and won the 100 backstroke with an NCAA championships qualifying time of 53.27. She also led the 200 medley relay team to a victory with a new school and conference record time.
 
The Cowgirls finished third, the program's second-highest finish at the Mountain West championships, with Kelsey setting UW records in the 100 backstroke and 100 freestyle, as well as contributing to team records in the 200 and 400 medley relays.
 
Kelsey earned All-American honors with a ninth-place finish in the 100 backstroke at the NCAA championships. Her time of 52.20 reset the school and conference records. She trained in Laramie that summer and qualified for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials.
 
"Oh gosh, for me, it just happened," Kelsey said. "I didn't really have goals like winning the Mountain West or definitely not going to Olympic Trials. That was never a goal. I just didn't think it was possible. It just happened."
 
Kelsey didn't lose a dual in the 100 backstroke and repeated as Mountain West champion in the event at the 2012 championships while also placing sixth in the 50 and 100 freestyle. Her time of 23.9 seconds in the 50 backstroke to lead off UW's 200 medley relay was the second-fastest time in the nation and is still the school record.
 
At the NCAA championships, Kelsey finished ninth again in the 100 backstroke to become the first woman in UW history to earn back-to-back All-American honors.
 
"Those years were very different. That first year I loved it," Kelsey said of her NCAA championship experiences. "It was amazing, and I feel like that was my highest high in swimming. But my second year, I finished in the exact same place, ninth place, with the exact same time. So, that felt a little demoralizing, because I spent this whole past year working really hard, and there was no change.
 
"That kind of fueled my training a little bit more going into Olympic trials."
 
At the U.S. Olympic Trials in Omaha that summer, Kelsey became the first UW women's swimmer to make the semifinals in the 100 backstroke. She finished 14th in the preliminaries (1:01.65) and eleventh in the semifinals (1:01.16).
 
"That was really cool. To be able to see behind the scenes of trials was something I'll never forget," Kelsey said. "I can't believe all the work that goes into it, and just being like an actual athlete for it, I felt like some VIP person, even though I was really not that important.
 
"But getting to swim with the best of the best was really humbling, definitely something I didn't take for granted."
 
Even though she was only .4 seconds away from making the final, Kelsey said she exceeded her expectations with her race in the semifinal.
 
Johnson puts her career on the same pedestal as Scott Usher, the UW Hall of Fame men's swimmer from Grand Island, Neb., who became the first Cowboy to swim in an Olympics at the 2004 Athens Games.
 
"Her story and Scott Usher's story are so similar – small town kids who got an opportunity to develop," Johnson said. "I felt like we could develop her to go fast. She had athletic ability to like Scott, who was a great athlete. He could have played football. In his high school years, we would have never known him (as an elite recruit). Kelsey probably could have run track. I'm sure she was probably sick of being ninth, but that's how the sport is. …
 
"I'm so I'm proud of her and I'm proud of what she was able to do while she was (at UW). She's such a good person, too, and that makes it even that much better."
 
When Kelsey graduated from UW she owned the school records in the 100 backstroke, 100 freestyle, 200 and the 400 medley relays, and 200 and 400 freestyle relays. She still holds the school record in the 100 backstroke and nine of the 10 fastest times by Cowgirls in the event.
 
"That was really humbling. That was a big surprise," Kelsey said of receiving the call notifying her that she will be inducted into the UW Athletics Hall of Fame. "TJ was reaching out to me, like asking, 'Oh, is this still your number?' And I knew he was playing a trick on me. It's an amazing honor."
 
(Editor's note: This is the second in a seven-part series profiling the 2024 UW Intercollegiate Hall of Fame class. Tickets to the induction banquet, which begins at 6 p.m. on Sept. 6 in the Gateway Center, are now on sale and can be purchased here: https://one.bidpal.net/wyohalloffame2024/welcome)
 
If you are interested in learning more about NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) or would like to support our student-athletes, please visit 1wyo.org. 1WYO was created out of Wyoming's culture of neighbor helping neighbor. The mission is to promote and strengthen local charitable organizations and develop Wyoming student athletes.
 
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