KEY LARGO, Fla.  The winter break between semesters always brings a warm-weather training trip for Western Colorado swimming and diving, and this season the Mountaineers traveled to the Florida Keys where on Tuesday, January 3 they participated in and finished third at the Orange Bowl Swim Classic at the Jacobs Aquatic Center (JAC).

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Classic is contested in the JAC's short-course 25-meter pool, a configuration that most of the team would find rare in their swimming histories with high school and college 25-yard pools and club long-course 50-meter pools the norm.
• Attending the meet were teams across the collegiate spectrum, from NCAA Division I Georgia Southern University, to the D-II Mountaineers, the University of Findlay (Ohio) and Concordia University-St. Paul (Minn.), to D-III Trinity (Conn.) College along with a local community college, The College of the Florida Keys.
• Findlay ran away with the women's title scoring 1,658 points to runner-up Georgia Southern's 652 points. Western's 496.5 points was third, edging out Trinity in fourth (457.5).
• Courtney Coplan racked up top finishes for Western, placing third in the 50m backstroke in a time of 30.61 seconds, and fourth in the 100 back, touching the pad in a time of 1 minute, 8.39 seconds. She was also on the Mountaineers' leading 200 medley relay foursome that took seventh (2:09.88) in the meet's opening event.
• Also swimming to third-place finishes in the meet were Leah Wagner in the 50 breaststroke (36.51) and LynDea Turner in the 200 individual medley (2:34.18). Wagner, also on that seventh-place medley relay, added a sixth place in the 100 breast (1:20.68), and Turner chipped in with a sevenths in the 50 (33.21) and 100 back (1:10.70) events.
• Sprinter Makenna Lambert led Western in the 50 butterfly, placing fifth (31.12), and was ninth in the 50 freestyle (29.02) and 100 free (1:03.73), and led off Western's third-place 200 free relay (1:55.06) in the Classic's final event.
• Jordan Maruska and Taylor Grebe were on both of Western's leading relays. In between those events, Maruska placed eighth in the 400 free (4:49.01), seventh in the 100 free (1:03.30), and 10th in the 50 free (29.27), while Grebe was sixth in the 50 free (28.73) and 10th in the 100 free (1:04.04).
• AvaMarie Hopewell contributed a trio of top-10 finishes, placing sixth in the 50 fly (31.16), eighth in the 100 fly (1:10.25) and 10th in the 400 free (4:57.15).
• Joining Wagner in the top 10 of the breaststroke races was Addison O'Donnell who was eighth in both the 50 (37.56) and 100 (1:22.20) and closed out the Classic as a member of the third-place free relay.

LOOKING AHEAD
Western will participate in the three-day, prelims-finals Colorado College Classic on Jan. 20-22 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.