For the last 59 years the University of Wyoming’s Men’s Swimming and Diving Team has been devoted to, but coming just short of, winning a conference championship, that is until this season.
For the first time since 1959 UW won a conference championship, winning the 2018 Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Championship with a total of 851 points for the event.
“Being there the last three years, freshman through junior year, and almost winning, it just felt almost surreal to win it this year,” senior Wade Nelson said.
Nelson had an impressive showing at the conference championship, placing second in the 200-meter backstroke with a time of 1:44.65.
“It was just such an amazing feeling to finally win it, especially my senior year,” Nelson said.
“It still kind of feels surreal, I think it’s still sinking in. As things started to go our way everyone had their fingers crossed that nothing would go wrong from there. And it didn’t. Everything just went perfectly.” – Slade Sheaffer, senior
Nelson also claimed an individual title, for the second time in his career, in the 400-meter individual medley.
Another senior, Slade Sheaffer, also was a heavy contributing factor to the Cowboys’ win. Sheaffer went 1:48.66 in the men’s 200 backstroke for an eighth-place finish.
“It still kind of feels surreal, I think it’s still sinking in,” Sheaffer said. “As things started to go our way everyone had their fingers crossed that nothing would go wrong from there. And it didn’t. Everything just went perfectly.”
These two were by far not the only standouts for the Cowboys. Junior Jack Herron, Senior Jacob Porter and Freshman Brayden Love all placed in the top five in the men’s 200 butterfly.
“I think Jack Herron, who’s a junior, had a great season and really stepped up at conference,” Nelson said. “All the guys in the 200 butterfly helped us out a lot.”
Sophomore diver Scotia Mullin also helped boost the Cowboys to a win. Mullin brought home two individual titles in both the three-meter and platform diving.
“It’s hard to pinpoint one person obviously,” Sheaffer said. “But Scotia did really well there for us at the end and I think that was noticeable because we didn’t have him earlier in the season at most of the dual meets. [Throughout the season] there was never one swimmer who was consistently our best guy, it was more everyone was getting their turn and pitching in at different points in the season and I think that made us the strongest team at the conference championship.”
Even though this was the last season for Nelson and Sheaffer, it was the first year for newly appointed head coach Dave Denniston. Denniston was an assistant for several years prior, but this was his first season as head coach for the men swimmers.
“I think the changes it (getting a new head coach) brought were a positive thing for the team as a whole,” Sheaffer said. “I think we saw that all year with how well we did in dual meets all year and obviously at the conference championship.”
Following the final event of the championship, Denniston was awarded WAC Coach of the Year.
“I was excited for a change,” Nelson said. “Dave was an assistant on the team for the last two years and we had a lot of success. So I was happy he got the job and I was really excited to see what he could do and I think, obviously, he did a great job all year.”
Along with Denniston receiving coach of the year, diving coach Kyle Bogner was awarded WAC Diving Coach of the Year and Mullin was awarded Diver of the Year. This was the second consecutive year that both Bogner and Mullin received these awards.
Mullin is now set to dive at the 2018 NCAA Championships this week in Minneapolis, Minn. He looks to compete on the three-meter springboard on Friday, March 23, and the platform on Saturday, March 24.
