Northern Colorado Swimming and Diving picked up another two wins Friday evening, defeating CSU-Pueblo 178-62 and Nebraska-Kearney 175-61. The Bears swept the meet, earning first place in all 13 events.
"I'm extremely happy with the way the girls swam tonight," head coach Kelly McClanahan said. "Our focus – being a month out from WAC Championships – has to be perfecting our races. Not only do we have to keep working on our splits, but we have to work on the finer things such as technique, starts, and turns. The girls really put the skills that we've been refining all year into play tonight, and it'll really show in a month when we're more rested that we forced those good habits despite racing tired."
The 200 yard medley relay team of Elle Gawronska, Courtney Chrzas, Laura Ramirez, and Kim Kuni kicked off the meet for the Bears with a first place finish with a team time of 1:54.24.
In the 1000 free, Carleigh Barrett and Sydney Kimura finished first and second, respectively, picking up huge team points for UNC. Barrett posted the only time under 11 minutes with a 10:54.90, and Kimura finished eight seconds later at 11:02.05.
Karlie O'Connell notched another first place finish for the Bears, touching the wall at 1:58.71 (the only racer to finish in under two minutes) in the 200 free.
Valeria Mihhailova finished first in the 50 free (25.36) followed by Kuni, who finished third just 2/100ths of a second behind another racer (26.30).
Ramirez, Tara Olson, and Kimura earned the top-three spots in the 200 yard IM, touching the wall at 2:16.96, 2:18.90, and 2:19.93, respectively.
It was Barrett and Ramirez for first and second place in the 200 fly, with Barrett finishing at 2:10.94, and Ramirez right on her tail, touching the wall at 2:11.18.
Mihhailova and O'Connell had another impressive race in the 100 free, picking up first and second at 54.84 and 55.64, respectively to extend the Bear lead in both meets.
In the 200 back, Gawronska and Brianna Salanitro were the fastest racers, finishing less than half a second away from each other. Gawronska finished at 2:12.39, while Salanitro finished at 2:12.79.
Barrett and Jenny Brown earned highest honors in the 500 free, with Barrett paving the way with a time of 5:22.25 and Brown clinching the second place spot at 5:30.03.
Chrzas and Olson closed out the individual races on a high note, finishing the 200 breast with times of 2:31.27 and 2:35.10, respectively, for first and second place.
Mihhailova, Salanitro, Kuni, and O'Connell closed out the meet with another win for UNC, finishing at 1:42.34 in the 200 yard free relay.
Savanna Meadows picked up the win for the Bears on the 1M with a score of 255.70.Taylor Walsh was close behind, finishing second with a 243.85 overall on the event.
Walsh set a season high on the 3M, taking first with an overall score of 266.95. Meadows finished second, putting up a score of 232.70.
"Taylor had a great, pretty consistent three meter list and pulled out not only a win, but also a season high," diving coach Chelsea Popplewell said. "There were definitely some rocky points in our lists, but we will examine those things to figure out what we absolutely have to focus on cleaning up in the next couple of weeks. There were definitely some good things that I'm very excited to see at this point in the season, too."
The Bears jump right back in the pool tomorrow for a second go against CSU-Pueblo and Nebraska-Kearney. Next week, the Bears will return to Greeley for their final home meet of the season (Feb. 3) where they'll honor five seniors in the Butler-Hancock Swimming Pool.
