Colorado State’s swim and dive team might not be the most popular sport at CSU, but it certainly is one of the most successful. After losing several seniors and grad students, the Rams looked to rebuild and redevelop their roster for the 2023-24 season.
The Rams’ season just began with the first meet happening last weekend against Wyoming. Despite ending their undefeated streak of 23 dual meets, the Rams weren’t disappointed by what happened in Wyoming.
Ad
“This season isn’t going to be defined by dual-meet wins and losses,” head coach Christopher Woodard said.
CSU underwent a roster overhaul in the offseason, gaining five new first-years and three new transfers. The new additions to the roster will provide new opportunities to rewrite race plans and adjust relay lineups.
“As a freshman, I just want to travel and be able to go to conference, and it would be awesome if I could score some points for the team and contribute (to the team),” first-year Maddi Geyer said. “As a team, at the beginning of the season, we just talked about (how) getting top three at conference is a really good goal for us that we want to try and get.”
Geyer is a first-year from Charlotte, North Carolina, which is also where the team will be traveling to compete for the first time this season.
“I’m from Charlotte, actually,” Geyer said. “So if I make the travel team, I’ll get to go home, and my friends are going to be there. But it’s always good to race different people and get different experiences, and only good things can come out of that.”
The consensus throughout the team is the end goal to compete and do well at the Mountain West Conference championships. Last season, the Rams didn’t end up meeting expectations, as they placed eighth and seventh on the first and second days of competition.
Coming off confident wins against New Mexico and Air Force, the Rams have another home meet against Denver, where they will continue to make adjustments to prepare for conference.
“We kind of sunk down last season in the rankings at conference, and we want to build our way back up,” junior Katie McClelland said. “We’d love to get top three; we really want to get back into that top five position especially.”
CSU is slowly making its way up the rankings, especially after their dominant double-dual meet win this past weekend. However, there are always changes and adjustments that can be made for improvements.
Ad
“We need to develop our race strategy and our toughness,” Woodard said following the dual-meet loss against Wyoming.
“We had some mistakes and some letdowns, but on the whole, I think they responded really well,” Woodard said. “Obviously it’s disappointing (not to) pull out the W, and there was the winning streak kind of weighing down on them, but now we’ve got that monkey off our back, and now it’s just preparing (for every meet).”
While the New Mexico and Air Force squads were not nearly as deep as the Wyoming roster, a win was necessary. Travel is a huge part of the season this year for the Rams, especially considering they have meets in North Carolina, Florida and Texas.
“I’m assuming (it’s for) new competition,” McClelland said. “In years past, we did go undefeated, and that was a huge accomplishment, but we definitely want to compete against bigger and harder teams. That’s how you get faster, and that’s how you compete against those bigger and faster teams at conference.”
While dual and double-dual meets aren’t the end-all-be-all for the Rams, conference competition is certainly looking to shape up that way. With the whole team having similar expectations of finishing in the top three for the Mountain West championships, all eyes will be on the Rams as they continue their season.
Reach Emma Askren at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter @emma_askren.
