Laramie, Wyo. (Jan. 19, 2019) – In their final home meet of the season, the Cowgirls dropped a tough contest to the defending Mountain West Champion Boise State with the final score being 162-138 on Saturday morning.
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“Boise State raced really well and we fought hard,” head coach Dave Denniston said. “We are putting in a lot hard of work so I think there some things we can do to get our speed up. Overall our women raced well and it was a fun meet. Daniela (Luna Rocha) continues to just be a dominating force in the distance events for us and we are fortunate to have her. Hannah (Mclean-Leonard) is refusing to lose the 100 fly this year and I think we saw that today too.”
The meet was highlighted by a strong performance from junior Daniela Luna Rocha who won both of her events. She started her day off with a very convincing performance in 1000-yard freestyle touching the wall with a time of 10:40.08 which was nearly 14 seconds faster than the second-place finisher. In the 500 freestyle, the race would be much closer with Luna Rocha and the Broncos Brittany Wen who were neck and neck for most of the race. Luna Rocha would pull away and touch the wall with a time of 5:06.62.
Sophomore Hannah Mclean-Leonard would also turn in a strong performance for the Brown and Gold recording a first and second place finish. Her second-place finish came in the 200 butterfly where she would be the top finisher for the Cowgirls in the event with a time of 2:06.27. She would then go on to record a strong performance in the 100-butterfly clocking a time of 55.34 which would earn her first in the event. In the relays, the 400 medley team of seniors Samantha Burke and Isobel Ryan, sophomore Mclean-Leonard and freshman Phoebe Browne swam a season-best time of 3:50.62. The 200 freestyle team of Ryan, Mclean-Leonard, freshmen Sani Carsrud, and Lainee Jones placed second with a 1:35.20 mark.
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On the boards, the Cowgirls would split events with the Broncos. In the one-meter event, Wyoming was led by senior CeeJay Harris who would take first in the event tallying a total score of 278.85 finishing ten points ahead of second place. Fellow senior Peyton GrandPre would take third in the event with a score of 244.95. In the three-meter event, GrandPre would be the highest finisher for the Cowgirls recording a score 239.63 to place fourth, while freshmen McKenna Houlihan taking fourth with a mark of 228.75.
Up next for the Cowboys and Cowgirls will both head to Las Vegas for a meet against the UNLV Rebels. The meet is scheduled to begin at 12 p.m. MT.
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