Five Cowgirls and Relay Team Named All-MW in Swimming and Diving

photo courtesy of UW Athletics Department

by staff–23 Feb ’21

Five individuals and a relay team from the Wyoming women’s swimming and diving program were named to the All-Mountain West Team, the conference announced on Monday. Senior Katelyn Blattner, Hannah Mclean-Leonard and sophomore Melissa Mirafuentes earned the most honors in three individual events while Blattner took home a title in the 800 freestyle relay. The top-eight finishers in each event and the top-three relay teams from the MW championships earn the All-Mountain West designation.

Two seniors, three juniors, one sophomore and two freshmen earned All-MW accolades. Four of the eight Cowgirls are receiving all-conference honors for the first time.

Blattner was named to the 200 and 500 freestyle All-MW team for the first time after winning back to back titles titles in each event. She took home her second title in the 500 freestyle on the second day of the championships with a season-best time of 4:47.33. Blattner followed that up with time of 1:48.36 mark of 200 freestyle to win the title and a solid second place time of 1:58.89 in the 200 backstroke nearly missing out on another first place finish.

Mirafuentes continued to be solid on every board all-around. She moved up to second in the 1-meter board with a score of 282.95 while placing in the same position in the 3-meter with a season-best score of 330.15. In the final event of the week, she repeated with a victory in the platform after a six dive total of 280.50 which helped her earn MW Diver of the meet honors for the second year in a row.

Mclean-Leonard opened up her week with a sixth place time of 2:03.43 in the 200 IM. She earned her fourth straight honor in the 100 butterfly after posting a third place time of 54.21 in the finals, while in the 200 fly she went a season-best time of 2:00.98 to place fourth.

Junior Erin Eccleston knocked almost six seconds off her season-best to finish sixth in the prelims with a time of 4:24.77. She followed that up with a mark of 4:29.65 in the finals to post an eighth place finish.

Freshman Sage Morton was solid in her first MW Championship performance in the 1650 free. She shaved 23 seconds off her previous best with a time of 16:53 65 to place third in the event.

The 800 relay team of Blattner, freshman Kali Franckowiak, juniors Lainee Jones and Sani Carsrud secured a third place spot with a time of 7:18.61.

The complete list of All-MW performers is below.

Individuals

Katelyn Blattner – 200-yard freestyle, 500-yard freestyle, 200-yard backstroke

Sani Carsrud – 800 freestyle relay

Erin Eccleston – 400 IM

Kali Franckowiak- 800 freestyle relay

Lainee Jones – 800 freestyle relay

Hannah Mclean-Leonard – 100-yard butterfly, 200-yard butterfly, 200 IM

Melissa Mirafuentes – 1-meter, 3-meter, platform

Sage Morton – 1650 freestyle