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CSU swim and dive celebrates 6 graduating athletes

Sophie Webb, Sports Editor

January 27, 2025

Collegian | Cait Mckinzie

Colorado State University and Washington State University swimmers ready themselves on their blocks for the 200 individual medley Oct. 18, 2024. WSU won the meet 141.5-120.5.

The Colorado State swimming and diving team celebrated seniors Maisy Barbosa, Emily Chorpening, Skyler Lyon, Katie Flynn, Rylee O’Neil and Maya White in the team’s final conference meet.

Maisy Barbosa

Since the 2010-11 season, Barbosa has been fine-tuning her craft, all leading up to the moment she would hit the Moby Pool.

Once immersed in the water, Barbosa took off. In her first year, she made two top-five program times and had multiple placings at the Mountain West championships. That same year, she swam a 4:20.90 in the 400 individual medley at the Phill Hansel Invite, ranking her fourth at the time at CSU. That same time now ranks her sixth.

Barbosa’s talent at the Phill Hansel Invite was the gift that kept on giving, and she is now ranked ninth overall at CSU for swimming the 200 IM.

After coming back from an injury her sophomore year, Barbosa placed in two events in the MW championship, and now that the next MW championship is fast approaching, it is time for Barbosa to keep her streak of placing alive.

Emily Chorpening

Chorpening has one of the most consistent careers this graduating class has seen. In high school, she was a six-time state placer and, through her club, placed top 10 in the nation in the 1,000 freestyle. She was also in the top 10 in Florida for the 1,650, 1,000 and 500 freestyle.

Chorpening’s achievements continued in the green and gold, making two top-10 times for CSU, yet these are not the only times she broke in 2022.

She now ranks third in CSU history for the 1,650 free, swimming a 16:37.58 time, fourth in the 500 free at 4:52.14 and fourth in the 1,000 free at 10:03.40.

Although Chorpening placed in at least one of her categories in past MW championships, she placed in all three of them in 2024, including the 1,650 freestyle, 500 freestyle and 400 IM.

Skyler Lyon

Hailing from Utah, Lyon started her swimming journey in 2016. Despite not being in the sport for as long as other athletes, Lyons has integrated herself well, making her a valuable member of the team.

Just last November, Lyon unlocked her best time for the 50 free at 24.39 and also recently swam her best time in the 100 free at 54.42 and 500 free at 5:19.91. She competed in the Western Athletic Conference Championships in 2024, placing fifth for the 100 breast at 1:02.23.

She ended the conference season on a positive note, winning in a relay alongside seniors Barbosa and White.

Katie Flynn

From being named most valuable on her team in 2020 to placing in five events over the past few seasons at the MW championships, Flynn has excelled as a swimmer.

In her first two seasons at CSU, Flynn placed multiple times throughout the season and even created an opportunity for herself to achieve new personal bests in her breaststroke events and the 200 IM.

Luckily for the team, the MW championships are fast approaching, and they seem to be the event where Flynn pulls out all the stops. Several of her collegiate personal records have hailed from these tournaments, including the 100 breast at 1:03.52, 200 breast at 2:19.57 and 200 IM at 2:04.68.

Because of her aforementioned 100 breast, Flynn now ranks eighth among past and present CSU swimmers for this event, having unlocked this time in 2023.

Rylee O’Neil

Fort Collins has been near and dear to O’Neil since she graduated from Fossil Ridge High School, where her team won the 5A state championship in 2021. O’Neil placed seventh in the 100 butterfly and 100 breaststroke and competed for state champion in the 200 medley and 400 free relay teams. Following high school, she began her collegiate career at the University of Missouri.

O’Neil achieved her personal bests at Mizzou in the 200 back at a time of 2:03.05, the 100 butterfly at 56.72 and the 200 IM at 2:03.04.

After becoming a Ram, O’Neil scored in every event throughout her junior season, placing in the team’s top three for both butterfly events and the 200 IM. Her best performances at CSU led her to place eighth in program history in the 200 IM at 2:03.63 and 10th in the 200 fly at 2:02.24.

Maya White

White is one of the most decorated players on the team, which is well-earned, as she has been training since 2012.

Within her first year at CSU, she made the team’s top times in the 500, 1,000 and 1,650 frees. She hit an NCAA B cut time in both her first and second year, the former qualifying her for the National Invitational Championships.

In her junior year, she earned All-Mountain West honors for all three swims and now ranks second in CSU history for the 1,000 and 1,650 free, third for the 500 free and fifth for the 400 IM.

In her final home event of the season, White won first place in the 200 fly and is expected to reach great heights as she competes in her final MW tournament in February.

Reach Sophie Webb at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter @sophgwebb.

About the Contributors

Sophie Webb, Sports Editor

Sophie Webb is back at The Collegian for her third semester, taking on the sports editor role. As a first-year student at CSU, she is pursuing a journalism and media communication degree. After beginning her journalism career in high school, she joined The Collegian in her senior year, contributing to several desks including sports, arts and entertainment, news and life and culture. In her first year at CSU, she dedicated the majority of her time to being a beat writer for women’s volleyball and basketball and found a passion for sports writing. As an editor, she now aims to help other writers discover their own passions. Webb’s favorite parts about working for the sports desk are covering tight, nail-biting games and interviewing athletes for feature stories. She gets to learn about the person behind the jersey, making her appreciate the game that much more. Her goal is to carve a place for herself at The Collegian and immerse herself in sports along with learning the ins and outs of CSU Athletics so she can act as a resource for sports writers. She eventually wants to pursue a career within the field and hopes to make an impact. Webb is excited to explore all aspects of journalism and media and is eager to grow both as a writer and as a professional during her time at CSU.

Cait Mckinzie, Photo Director

Cait Mckinzie is a second-year student double majoring in art and journalism and media communication. She is one of two photo directors for the 2024-25 school year. Despite growing up in Renton, Washington, Mckinzie knew she wanted to go to Colorado State University since middle school. She had only ever been to Colorado twice, but she visited campus once, and that was all it took. At first, there wasn’t much in Fort Collins that Mckinzie was familiar with. But in high school, she was the co-head of visuals for her school newspaper, so she applied to The Collegian as a photographer to get back into a similar environment. Mckinzie was first introduced to photography by her grandfather, who has been a photographer most of his life. After he gifted Mckinzie her first camera in her junior year of high school, she began to take any assignment she could for her high school paper to improve her skills. Of all the memories made in her first year at CSU, most of the interesting ones came from The Collegian. One Halloween drag show assignment, a lot of mentorship and a few months of practice later, Mckinzie found herself being offered the position of photo director for the next academic school year. Mckinzie is excited for another year at The Collegian and aims to continue learning and growing during her time as one of the photo directors.

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