The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams will take on the Air Force Falcons, and the women’s team will face the New Mexico State Aggies at a meet in Colorado Springs, Colo., today. The H20 Frogs are going up against Air Force and NMSU after the men’s loss to the BYU Cougars 159.5-80.5 and the women’s loss to the Cougars 149-94 Saturday.
The women’s team also lost to the Colorado State Rams Thursday 156-144. These meets marked the first losses of the season for both teams.
“Both the number of kids and the quality of the kids BYU has in their program give them a wider range of swimmers,” head coach Richard Sybesma said. “We swam our best and did real well, but the BYU team is more mature. We use BYU as a measuring stick at the (Mountain West) Conference.”
Sybesma said he was pleased with his team’s performance against.
“Early November, we’re swimming really well, and, as a result, our times were good,” Sybesma said. “This time last year, our scores are faster than a year ago.”
With the meet against Air Force today, Sybesma said he hopes not only the top swimmers perform well but that the rest of the team raises the bar as well.
“Against Air Force, we are pretty strong since we match up against every one of their swimmers, except for one since he is a NCAA qualifier,” Sybesma said. “The Air Force women’s team is easier, and our women are favored.”
Stephanie Futscher, a freshman butterfly and freestyle swimmer, said she was pleased with the teams’ performances at last week’s meets.
“We did really well, we tried our best, and hopefully, we’ll be better the next time we get to meet them at the conference,” Futscher said.
Guillermo Ramirez, a men’s senior backstroke and sprint swimmer, said he believes the meet against BYU made the teams ready for the rest of the season.
Despite TCU’s loss last year against Air Force, caused by a TCU relay disqualification that allowed Air Force a one-point lead, Ramirez said he believes this year’s competition will be very interesting and TCU is ready for every team in the conference.
“We were ready for it, and everybody is happy with their times,” Ramirez said.
Ramirez gained the top time of 1 minute 50.11 seconds in the 200-yard backstroke against BYU. The time is also the top Mountain West Conference time.
