LARAMIE – Winter break at the University of Wyoming leaves the campus mostly empty and eerily quiet.
Unless you happen to walk into the John Corbett Building to hear the splashing and whistles during swimming and diving practice or into the Arena-Auditorium to hear the dribbling and sneaker squeaking during basketball practice.
Dave Denniston, UW's head swim coach, felt the Dome of Doom was too quiet to live up to its nickname. He decided to make sure the student section brought the juice for
Sundance Wicks during the Cowboys' home game against UNLV last Tuesday night.
"I did go to one of the basketball games where nobody is here and it's just kind of like, man, we should have more people in the stands," Denniston said. "I knew it was an 8 o'clock game on a Tuesday so how likely was it people were really going to be there? I made an announcement to the team if they showed up to the game and they were obnoxious that practice the next day would be easy. And they showed up and had a blast and now it's a thing."
The swimmers flooded the bleachers on the court behind the basket near the visiting bench, some without shirts, to support the basketball team. The Cowboys ran away from the Runnin' Rebels for a 98-66 victory.
"Dave was kind of like guys, let's get weird at the basketball game," said junior captain
Cameron Knox. "You know what to do, go for it. We did it and it was a bunch of fun."
Before the Cowboys and Cowgirls jumped back into the pool for Monday's practice, Denniston announced a special visitor was going to speak to the team.
Then Wicks showed up wearing a towel and some throwback UW basketball shorts to thank them by doing a belly flop off the 1-meter diving board.
"My chest is still red," Wicks said at his Tuesday press conference. "Pokes helping Pokes is powerful stuff."
Point guard
Leland Walker decided to take a dive – in sweatpants and socks – after Wicks braved the water despite saying he didn't know how to swim.
Gavin Gores followed with an awkward dismount that sent the 6-foot-10 freshmen into the water back first.
Simm-Marten Saadi and
Garrett Spielman also got in on the action.
"Seeing Coach jump in I really just wanted to jump in. I haven't jumped in a pool in a minute," said Walker, who scored 28 points against UNLV to match his career high at UW. "Their support means a lot. We need everybody for these types of games. We have San Diego State coming in so we need the swimmers to pop out and make the arena filled so we can have a great game."
Swimming and viving will be in attendance for the Cowboys' game against San Diego State at 6 p.m. tonight in the AA. Wicks challenged Denniston's squad, which has a history of getting rowdy at Cowgirl volleyball matches, to show up in their Speedos this time.
"It is a big ask. I feel like the basketball arena is a lot bigger and scarier than the (UniWyo). We'll be in Speedos at some point for sure," Knox said. "Everything (against UNLV) went right when we were there. It was like, did we show up for the perfect game or is this us? I think we did help."
The UW swimming and diving program has a strong culture, and the team spends countless hours together in the pool. The bond became unbreakable two years ago when the Cowboys and Cowgirls rallied around each other following the tragic death of three teammates – Charlie Clark, Carson Muir and Luke Slabber – in a single-vehicle crash on U.S. Highway 287.
This outreach with the basketball team has demonstrated a broader connection between programs in the athletic department.
"To me this is what an athletic department is supposed to be like. You're supposed to have an internal culture, a staff culture that's exciting, that's fun, that goes and supports other programs and shows up for it," Wicks said. "It just meant a lot to me that Dave and the guys cared enough to come provide a little bit of a spark in a game where we really needed it."
Denniston and Wicks are both from Gillette, which adds to the connection.
"It's funny, we didn't really know each other growing up. We know a lot of the same people and we talk about that. Our relationship and friendship have grown," Denniston said. "I know he's going to support me through anything I need. If he has the time and the ability all I have to do is ask. That's just his personality and I want to be able to reciprocate that to him and show how much the friendship means to me as well.
"There's a little bit of the Campbell County boys sticking together but I think at the end of it it's just about Wyoming and supporting our athletic programs."
At the beginning of the year, the swim team splits up into Brown vs. Gold for a week long intrasquad competition. The rivalry carried over to the training table in the High Altitude Performance Center one night in the form of a wing eating contest.
"When all the sports kind of came through the couple people we knew on different teams were like, check this out, and they would bring their friends. It was fun interacting with everybody," Knox said. "Swimmers going to basketball games and basketball players coming to swim practice and doing belly flops, it's so much more fun.
"It makes it more of a Wyoming thing and not individual sports or basketball and swimming. It's One Wyoming in a sense."
Follow Ryan for more stories on Wyoming athletics on X at
@By_RyanThorburn on Facebook at Wyoming Athletics and Instagram at wyoathletics. Also follow him at
Pokes Insider at Gowyo.com/pokesinsider.
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