Jan. 27, 2010

Complete Release in PDF Format

By Danielle Musso
Athletic Media Relations

This week…
In their final home meet of the 2009-10 season, the Colorado State swimming and diving team (7-1, 5-1 Mountain West) will recognize nine departing seniors Saturday at Moby Pool, when the Rams host UNLV.

However, Saturday’s home dual will exclude the diving events due to both CSU and UNLV’s diving teams traveling to the Air Force Natatorium for the AFA invite on Friday and Saturday.

Hosting UNLV…
In their second-to-last conference dual of the season, the Rams are focusing on staying strong and defending their home turf one last time this season as they host UNLV (2-8, 2-4 MWC) on Saturday. Along with fighting to maintain an undefeated home record for 2009-10, CSU (2-0) will look to increase its series record against the Rebels to 5-4.

The Rams will say good-bye to nine of their seniors who have played a magnificent role in bringing excellence to the team both inside and outside the pool, according to Head Coach John Mattos. Lindsay Borman, Carmen Gisella Cianci, Nora Kennedy, Mari Anna Loftness, Valerie Maldonado, Kathleen McCleary, Jennifer Muniz, Molly Myers and Shaelen Quigley will participate in their final competition in Moby Pool on Saturday at 1 p.m. against UNLV.

Air Force Academy Invite…
Even though the CSU and UNLV diving teams will not be present at Moby Pool on Saturday, diving scores will be included in the team totals for the Rams-Rebels dual. This is possible due to the Rams’ and Rebels’ diving teams participating in the Air Force Academy Invite in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Friday and Saturday. Scores produced at the Invite will also be used in the team totals when CSU hosts UNLV on Saturday.

Day 1 of the Invite will include the 1-meter board along with the platform, which is an event the Rams have not had the opportunity to use often this season. However, they will be diving the event at the conference championships, so diving coach Kevin Witt is happy to get a little practice in prior to conference. Friday’s dives will begin at the Air Force Natatorium at 1 p.m.

The Invite continues Saturday at 8 a.m. and concludes that afternoon. Day 2’s event will be the 3-meter board, on which CSU sophomore Shayna Solomon has excelled and acquired the role as team leader.

Quotes from Head Coach John Mattos:
On seniors…
“They are a very meaningful class in a sense that they have done a lot to the program. They have brought the program back to a very high level both performance-wise in the classroom and in the pool. They are just quality young ladies. I am going to miss them immensely.”

On hosting UNLV…
“For whatever reason we have been very solid on our home turf this year and I am hoping we can continue to keep that going through a perennially good UNLV team. They did lose a very talented athlete early in the year that they were expecting to buoy them throughout the year and that is always a tough loss. They are a talented team with a great coaching staff and I don’t anticipate we are going to have any ability to let off in order to defeat them. We are going to have to come at them very hard if we are going to get by.”

Quotes from Diving Coach Kevin Witt:
On expectations of Air Force Invite…
“We are participating in the Invite, but we are also competing against UNLV. First thing is, we have to be competitive with them on both the 1-meter and the 3-meter, so our scores count overall. One goal is to go down there and score as many points as we can against them. It is always a good meet this time of year because we get to do tower (platform), which we don’t get to do very often and that is an event in the conference meet. We will see at least three or four teams that will be at the conference meet and we haven’t seen some of them for quite a while now. It is a good meet for us to go, get our lists together and figure out how to prepare for our conference meet.”