Colorado School of Mines has Strong Showing at Rocky Mtn Invite

Colorado School of Mines' Men were undefeated, while the Women gained some revenge at their home pool.  The CSM Women were beaten on Day One by Mesa State and CU, but came back strong against CU on Day Two by nipping CU 103 to 91 for a little team revenge.

The divers had a strong weekend.  Friday's events showcased a strong diving contigency from Colorado State University.  Shayna Solomon and Cori Swango, both from CSU, each set Pool Records in their respective wins, Solomon walking away with the 1M competition with a score of 268.55 pts.  Swango won a tight contest on 3M, edging her teammate Solomon and CSM's Sarah Moore by several points, her final score was 279.60.  Moore returned to the boards with a little tougher degree of difficulty on Saturday to reset the 3M Pool and School 6-dive record, posting a solid 308.25 pts.  She went on to set the CSM Natatorium and School records for 11-dives on both 1M and 3M.  CSU's Solomon qualified for NCAA Division I Zone Diving Championships on 1M, while CSM's Moore and Mesa State's Annie Rhoades both qualified for NCAA Division II Nationals, to be held in March 2010 in Canton, OH.


Friday's Swimming events were highlighted by Mesa State's Katie Wedel, who was close to the NCAA Division II "B" standard in the 200IM, winning at altitude with a 2:13.96, only 0.83 seconds off the cut.  Multiple individual event winners included
Wedel in the 200 IM and 100 Fly, Mesa State's Kelly Hogan in the 100 and 200 free, and Mines' Jacob Dole in the 50 free and 100 back.

Saturday's Swimming events were highlighted by CSU.  Their swimmers reset almost every pool record in the events contested, with Kathleen McCleary (mile), Jennifer Lamb (200&500 free), Samantha Dole (50 free), Arianne Lujan (400 IM), Mary Foster (200 fly), Gisella Cianci (100 free), Maddie Gamble (200 back), and Nicole Lynch (200 breast) all setting CSM Natatorium records, while their two relays set records in the 200 Medley (Molly Myers, Kelly Mathews, Kim Schemahorn, and Lindsay Banning) and the 200 Free (Kelly O'Brien, Kerianne Stuck, Mckenna Gustafson, Lindsday Banning).  Another CSM Natatorium record was set by J. Aaron Miller of CSM, eclipsing his previous record in the mile, set at last season's Rocky Mtn Invite.  The only multiple individual event winner on the day was Mines' Andrew Zerwick in the 200 free and 200 back, as Lamb swam exhibition in the 500 free.

Colorado School of Mines will travel to University of Nebraska at Kearney to compete in a double-dual meet vs UNK and Morningside this Saturday, October 24, and will follow that with a dual meet at Colorado College in Colorado Springs on November 7.



The first-year Adams State College women's swimming team broke or established seven more school records as the Grizzlies competed during the first day of the Rocky Mountain Invitational held Friday evening in the Colorado School of Mines Natatorium.

The Grizzlies were led by a third place finish by freshman Lauren Griffin (Puyallup, Wash.) in the 500-yard freestyle and by the 800-yard freestyle relay team that also took third.  Griffin, who posted a time of 5 minutes, 46.76 seconds in the 500-yard event, contested by 10 swimmers breaking her own record set a week prior by 3.03 seconds, and then led off the relay team that finished in a record-establishing time of 9:01.26.
In between, she also broke the record in the 200-yard individual medley as she posted a time of 2:28.28 to finish seventh in a field of 16 swimmers.  That time bested Chandler Osborne's (Buena Vista, Colo.) previous school record of 2:30.94, set a week prior in the same pool.

Limited to just six swimmers, who were suffering from various illnesses and to no more than three swims each in the 13-event program while going against much larger teams, the Grizzlies were not able to win any of the team scoring battles held within the context of the 6-team meet.

However, coach Rebecca Sturdy was pleased with the effort of her team, which competed for the first time just seven days earlier. 

"The girls are progressing nicely and have shown a lot of improvement in just a week," she said.

"Only one of the six girls was completely healthy this weekend and they all showed a lot of guts to swim through their individual illnesses."

The Grizzlies first record-breaking effort came in the 400-yard medley relay as Jessica Palacio (Albuquerque, N.M.), Annissa Jones (Colorado Springs, Colo.), Madison Hill (Tucson, Ariz.) and Osborne, who posted a solid relay split time of 1:00.94 in her anchoring freestyle leg, combined for a time of 4:47.79 to finish in seventh place.
Jones then got her hand in the record-breaking effort as she posted a time of 30.50 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle.  That time, good for 14th place, broke the former Grizzly standard of 31.86 set by Lizzy Schossow (Fort Morgan, Colo.), who also improved upon her time finishing in 31.42 to take 16th place.

After Griffin's individual medley swim, Palacio established the new ASC record in the 100-yard butterfly as she posted a time of 1:08.64 to take 12th place.
Schossow then took the same place in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 1:12.71, 0.84 faster than she had gone the week prior.

Hill, who later swam the third leg on the 800-yard freestyle relay in 2:22.41, then turned in her long individual performance of the evening finishing 13th with a time of 1:14.42 in the 100-yard backstroke.

Osborne then edged Palacio's former record of 1:21.96 in the 100-yard breaststroke as she finished 10th amongst 18 swimmers, touching in 1:20.61.  Jones also contested the event taking 13th in 1:23.80.

Griffin had the best of the four relay splits in the night-ending 800-yard freestyle relay as she was clocked in 2:09.01.  Osborne finished the relay with a relay split of 2:13.94 while Palacio finished her second leg in 2:15.90.

In the team scoring, the Grizzlies fell to host Colorado Mines (149-47), Mesa State (164-42) and Nebraska-Kearney (132-52) and were out-pointed by the University of Colorado and Metro State club teams by 151-32 and 81-60 margins, respectively.

On Saturday, the Grizzlies will also compete against the same teams and Division I Colorado State on the second day of the meet, which will be scored independently from Friday's competition.