The Colorado State University swim and dive team headed south and competed at the United States Air Force Academy in the USAFA Winter Invite this past weekend. The Rams placed first on the first day of competition and second on the second.

The Air Force Academy invited four teams to their school: Colorado State University, Colorado Mesa University, Seattle University and Brigham Young University. Besides the Chick-fil-A Invitational earlier this season, the Rams hadn’t competed in a meet this large all season.

The first day of the competition began in the evening with the 400-yard medley relay. The Rams placed first in this event, followed by the CMU Mavericks, who placed second due to an astounding breaststroke split from Lily Borgenheimer of 1 minute, 2.3 seconds.

The next event was women’s 3-meter diving, in which CSU’s Jessica Albanna placed fourth with a score of 259.65, Braeden Shaffer sixth at 248.55 and Maggie Di Scipio placed eighth with a score of 235.15. Overall, the diving went well for the Rams with all divers placing in the top 10.

The following event was the 500-yard freestyle, with USAFA first-year Katie Andrist winning the event. CSU’s Maya White placed fourth in this event. 

“Even with this last minute victory, they only placed second with a total score of 420.5, falling to USAFA, which had a score of 468.5.”

The rest of the first day of competition followed a similar pattern of competitiveness between the teams. The 200-yard individual medley was won by CMU’s Lily Borgenheimer but almost won by CSU’s Erin Dawson. The event was won by Borgenheimer by only 0.04 seconds.

After the first day of competition, CSU was ahead with a total score of 519.5 points. The Air Force Academy placed second with a score of 511.5, BYU third with 437.5 points, CMU fourth with 381.5 and Seattle University fifth with 145 points.

The second day of competition began with the 200-yard medley relay. CSU took first place with a time of 1:44.53, quickly followed by USAFA with a time of 1:44.86.

After a break in the swimming thanks to platform diving, the 400-yard individual medley was next. CMU’s Borgenheimer proved to be an excellent individual medley swimmer, winning both the 200 Friday and now the 400 Saturday. CSU placed second, fourth and ninth in this event.

✅Weekend Invite done

➡️ One last dual awaits

📝 https://t.co/csZkwgf0x5 pic.twitter.com/m1G9wDQV6C

— Colorado State Swim & Dive (@CSUSwimDive) January 22, 2023

The Rams came out in full force for the 100-yard butterfly. CSU dominated this event, sweeping the podium places. Lucy Matheson placed first with a time of 56.37 seconds, Amanda Hoffman second and Hannah Sykes third, sweeping the top three. 

Despite the dominant performance in the 100-yard butterfly, the Rams didn’t win any more events until the end of the meet. CMU’s Borgenheimer won the 100-yard breaststroke, USAFA’s Kai-Min Tsuei won the 100-yard backstroke and Katelyn Andrist, also from USAFA, won the 1650-yard freestyle.

Despite the lack of victories for the majority of the meet, CSU won the last event, the 400-yard freestyle relay, with a time of 3:30.16. Even with this last-minute victory, they only placed second with a total score of 420.5, falling to USAFA, which had a score of 468.5.

Colorado State’s next competition is in Greeley against the University of Northern Colorado Jan. 27, where they look to continue their dual-meet win streak.

Reach Emma Askren at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter @emma_askren.