Sometimes the high altitude can wreak havoc.
Friday, San Diego State headed to Fort Collins and its mile-highaltitude for its first conference meet of the season and watched CSUwin nine of 13 events en route to defeating the Aztecs, 148-83. Withthe win, the Rams kept their record a perfect 6-0, 3-0 in theMountain West Conference play.
“They are competitive,” said head coach Deena Deardurff-Schmidtabout the Rams. “As a team I didn’t know if we could compete, butindividually we did what I expected.”
Freshman Megan Storey continued her stellar rookie campaign bywinning the 1,000-meter freestyle with a time of 10:16.09. SophomoreErin Kilpatrick was victorious in the 200 freestyle and junior TaraJohnson won a tough 200 butterfly race.
Continuing a trend from last week’s meet against USD, the Ramsdominated SDSU in the 50-yard freestyle taking the top three spots.Junior Lyndsey Carlaw won with a time of 24.85.
“We started off a little slow,” said CSU head coach John Mattos.”After we swept the 50 free and followed that up with wins in the 200individual medley and 1-meter diving, we really came to life.”
CSU’s depth was too much for the Aztecs to make up for. Lastweek’s MWC Swimmer of the Week Sandy Leaycraft earned a victory inthe 200 backstroke and second place in both the 1,000 freestyle and200 individual medley.
SDSU’s swimming tour moved onto Colorado Springs for its meet onSaturday against Air Force. Not only did they have a tough Falconsteam to face, the Aztecs were up against the 7,258-foot altitude.
For the first time in three meets, Air Force defeated SDSU166.5-131.5.
The conference victory was the Falcons first since Feb. 6, 1999when they were a member of the Western Athletic Conference.
Diving crushed SDSU. Sweeping 1-2-3 in both the 1- and 3-meterevents, Air Force outscored the Aztecs by 28 points.
“It couldn’t have been worse,” Schmidt said. “Until we get a pool,we can’t compete in diving.”
The Falcons used three divers, including last week’s MWC Diver ofthe Week Sarah Law, compared to the Aztecs’ one — freshman DianeHoeck.
“We know she’s doing her best,” Ryan said about the freshmandiver. “With more experience, she’ll do better.”
Once again, the usual suspects shined for SDSU.
Storey dominated the 1,000 freestyle with a time of 10:29.03 — 25seconds faster than the second-place finisher. The freshman also wonthe 500 freestyle.
Junior Meghan Casillan won her fifth race of the season winningthe 200 backstroke with a time of 2:08.42. Sophomore Erin Kilpatrickfinished first in both the 100 free and butterfly.
Two losses, both in conference, makes for a tough weekend. SDSUnow stands at 0-4 overall, 0-2 MWC.
“The altitude made it difficult,” Ryan said. “I think we did wellwith the traveling. Everyone did pretty well.”
The Aztecs return to the pool on Dec. 1 when they compete in LongBeach.
