Wyoming Swimming and Diving will head to the Mountain West Conference Championships Wednesday in Oklahoma City.
The Cowboys and Cowgirls have been on a break since their meet against Air Force Feb. 5, and head coach Tom Johnson said that the team is ready to go.
“This is definitely not the team I had three weeks ago,” Johnson said. “They have so much energy right now, and they’re really wild. It’s frustrating as a coach cause sometimes you just have to bite your lip, but they are definitely wild and they are ready for this meet.”
The Cowboys are one of three teams tied in the middle of the conference with a 2-3 record.
Air Force and BYU also hang in the middle of the pack with the same conference record, and UNLV and TCU sit atop the Mountain West with conference records of 5-0 and 4-1, respectively. Utah sits in the conference cellar with an 0-5 record.
Cowgirl Swimming and Diving sits just above the log-jam in the women’s rankings. Their 5-3 conference record puts them in a tie with Utah for third in the MWC behind San Diego State and BYU.
Wyoming ended its regular season with both teams winning in a home meet against Air Force.
The break gave the squad time to rest up before the conference meet, and allowed Johnson time to fine tune some things with his team.
“We wanted to tighten up our relay exchanges a little bit. They needed a little work, but we tried not to put too much pressure on the kids otherwise they’ll start thinking about it rather than just doing it,” Johnson said, “Other than that we just took the layoff to work out a few things. At this point in the season most of the hay is already in the barn training wise, and we just have to be sure that we’re sharp and ready to go.”
Last season, the Cowgirls finished second in the Mountain West trailing only BYU in the final championship standings. The Cowboys finished fourth in the conference championship in 2010. It is Johnson’s 12th year as head coach, and he understands that the fulcrum of a team’s success is to adhere to the program’s core value of improving every week.
“We need to continue to improve every day. If we can stay hungry and keep the kids motivated and keep them happy and remind them that it is a team mission at conference. We tell our kids that when they’re on the blocks they need to remember that they are swimming for ‘we not me.’” Johnson said.
Teams left for Oklahoma City Monday afternoon and will hit the pool for the first day of competition tomorrow.
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