Feb. 19, 2001

LARAMIE, Wyo. -

MWC Swimming and Diving Championships: For the second consecutive year both the Wyoming men's and women's swimming and diving teams placed fourth in the team standings at the Mountain West Conference Swimming and Diving Championships.

The Cowgirls overtook Utah on the final day of competition to place fourth with 425 points. BYU's women repeated as league champs with 815 points. The Cowboys also placed fourth with 530.5 points. The BYU men repeated as conference champs by narrowly edging UNLV 828.5-817.

Cowboy sophomore Damian Storz picked up the only individual title for UW when he repeated as the conference champion in the 400 individual medley with a time of 3:55.78.

Wyoming had three second-place performances as well at the championships. Senior Buddy Boysen was runner-up in the 100 butterfly with a time of 48.48, Storz placed second in the 1650 free with a time of 15:42.71 and sophomore Mabry Fiddler finished second in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:18.46. Fiddler also placed third in the 400 IM and Boysen placed fifth in the 200 fly.

Other outstanding performances at the conference championships were given by junior diver Oscar Delgado (third on both the one and three-meter springboards and fourth on the platform), sophomore Allison Schmid (fourth in the 200 free), sophomore Jody Riskowski (fourth in the 100 back), sophomore Darcrea Corey (third in the 200 butterfly), sophomore Angie Sax (fourth in the 200 fly and fifth in the 100 fly), senior Wendy O'Connell (fifth on the three-meter springboard), sophomore Lauren Colaric (fifth on the one-meter springboard) sophomore Jake Weidert (third in both the 400 IM and 200 fly), senior Al Jarrell (fifth in both the 400 IM and 200 breast), sophomore Ted Dibble (fifth in the 200 free) and freshman Brad Leopold (fifth in the 100 back).

Six UW School Records Broken at Championships: Six Wyoming school records were broken at the 2001 MWC Championships. Sophomore Mabry Fiddler set two new school records in the 400 IM (4:26.83) and the 200 breast (2:18.46). Sophomore Allison Schmid set a new record in the 200 free (1:52.50), senior Buddy Boysen broke his own school record in the 100 butterfly (48.48), freshman Brad Leopold set a new standard in the 100 backstroke (50.86) and the women's 800 free relay team of Schmid, Fiddler, freshman Lauren Bush and junior Jennifer Schurz set a new record with a time of 7:40.31.

Diving Coach Wins Award: Wyoming diving coach Jason Baumann was honored as the MWC Men's Diving Coach of the Year at the conclusion of the championships. Baumann's efforts for improving the men's diving team were evident this season (Baumann's second at UW), with the men having eight top ten finishes in the three diving events at the championships.

TJ's Take: These are quotes from UW head coach Tom Johnson about the Mountain West Conference Championships: "I was very pleased with the teams effort and all the record breaking performances we had, the team did a tremendous job. The team came out and performed at a very high level throughout the duration of the conference championships. We improved in a lot of areas from last season and hopefully that trend will continue on into next season."