Rams Host Front Range Invite to Open Campaign

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Oct 2

5:00 PM

Women's Swimming & Diving

vs Front Range Invitational

Oct 3

11:00 AM

Women's Swimming & Diving

vs Front Range Invitational

Oct 17

12:00 PM

Women's Swimming & Diving

vs Washington State

Oct 17

12:00 PM

Women's Swimming & Diving

vs Colorado Mesa

Oct 30

12 PM Dive/2 PM Swim

Women's Swimming & Diving

at Denver

FORT COLLINS -- The season kicks off in familiar fashion, with Colorado State's women's swimming and diving team playing the role of hosts for the Front Range Invite, a two-day event which begins Friday at Edora Pool Ice Center.

The Rams will host the swimming portion of the meet, with the diving being held at the Air Force Academy to take advantage of the diving facilities which include platform. Swimming will take place at EPIC with Friday's session starting at 5 p.m.; the following day's events open at 11 a.m. The diving schedule is 5 p.m. on Friday (1- and 3-meter) and 11 a.m., on Saturday (platform). The swimming will be live streamed.

For CSU coach Christopher Woodard, the meet represents the start of a process, one the Rams hope lead to a fruitful finish.

"I think, as always, the appropriate and boring answer is we got to work on process. So with our athletes, it's not only making sure that we're training the proper way, but we're training with an eye towards the races," Woodard said. "We talk about ABC -- always be closing -- so we do a lot of prep in our sets about how we want to close out races and then we alternate that with opening up.

"I know Seth O'Dea, our diving coach, works a lot on fundamentals. How do we build up to a list where we've got two and a halves in every direction? You know, the blend is going to be unique. We've got some first-years who are just starting to learn our culture and our nomenclature, so this is just a good test because it's competitive, but it's not a lot of head-to-head, so it sometimes eases the nerves."

While Woodard is beginning his 16^th season, this will be O'Dea's second working with the dive crew. Last season, a trio of Rams qualified for NCAA Zones, and he has a trio of divers who earned their way into the top-10 lists in program history, led by Sydney Ovesen, who was an all-conference performer her first season.

Junior Riley Lee returns as the elder statesman of the group, and she expects the development under him to continue this season.

"I think that we've all developed and gotten new dives and gained so many new skills under Seth. I think that it was a really good transition into the new coach," said Lee, one of the Zones qualifiers. "It was a transition phase at first for me, going from Chris (Bergere) to then Seth, but I will say that it was really beneficial for me, and I know and can see that I have gone on to be a better athlete."

Friday at EPIC will consist of nine races, bookended by relays. Saturday's schedule eight events, also starting and ending with relays. As the title of the meet suggests, the local competition has Air Force, Denver, Northern Colorado and Wyoming in attendance, with Air Force, Denver and Wyoming bringing their men's squads.

Colorado State returns a strong core led by Tess Whineray, who became the first Ram to qualify for the NCAA Championships in 13 seasons. She broke the school records in both the 100- and 200-yard backstrokes, as well as swimming legs on four relays which set school records. The six incoming freshmen include the program's first top-20 recruit in Keyda Geyer, a junior national champion in the 200-meter breaststroke and a placer in the event at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships.

Senior captain Mia Axelman believes the team will build off the success it had last season, including herself. After a fantastic finish to her junior campaign – she entered the top 10 in all three sprint freestyle events and ranks second in the 100 free to only Amy Van Dyken, she will enter the season in the same frame of mind as Woodard.

"I think for me, the biggest thing is just executing races. I try to let go of the time piece and just focus on, 'OK, am I hitting turns, starts, and all that sort of thing," she said. "It's just having fun. It's the first race and just see what happens.

"I just feel honored that the team trusts me to take on that role (of captain), and I think we're already seeing it; captains and coaches have talked a lot about what we want to see in the team this year and buying into the process and focusing on the details. Already in this past month, we've seen a lot of that, and I'm just excited to be a part of this team this year."

This will be the first of three meets the opening month for the Rams. They will return to EPIC on Oct. 17 to host a double-dual with Washington State and Colorado Mesa, then close on the road at Denver on Oct. 30.

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