Dec. 9, 2008

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Whitney Lopus (Scottsdale, Ariz.) and Adam Oliver (Colorado Springs, Colo.) were named the Mountain West Conference Swimmers of the Week, the conference office announced Tuesday. This is the third time Lopus has earned the award during her freshman season and the first time Oliver has won the award.

Oliver set multiple school records at the Princeton Invitational last weekend. His 500 freestyle time of 4:25.21 marks the second-best time in Utah history and is the fastest in over a decade. The senior set a new school record in the 1,000 free with a time of 9:15.24 and finished the 1,650 freestyle in 15:17.70, which also broke the school record by more than five seconds. Oliver also swam the anchor leg of Utah's 800-yard freestyle relay that finished in second at 6:38.51 setting a new school record.

"This was a breakthrough meet for Adam," said Utah head coach Greg Winslow. "He showed a glimmer of this sort of competitiveness in our meet against UNLV [earlier this season], but that was topped by his effort at Princeton."

Lopus broke five school and MWC records to help Utah finish in second place at the Princeton Invitational. The freshman swam the 500 freestyle in 4:42.47, breaking the MWC record by 7.13 seconds. Lopus also set a school, MWC and pool record for the 100 butterfly to win the race in 53.19. She finished second in the 200 butterfly, scoring 1:56.78 to top the Utah and MWC records for the event. Lopus swam the lead-off leg of Utah's 800 freestyle relay that set school and league records with a time of 7:13.62. She also swam on the Utes' first-place 200 medley and 400 free relays, touching in 1:42.87 and 3:18.71, respectively.

"We weren't surprised by Whitney's times," said Winslow. "Our strength coach has been watching what we've been doing in the pool and having her lift like she never has before. We expect her to be faster at the end of the year. She would be disappointed if she wasn't."

The Utes have been honored with the MWC's Swimmer or Diver of the Week award six times this year. Lopus' previous swimmer of the week awards came earlier in the season for performances against UNLV on Nov. 15 and against Boise State and Washington on Oct. 21. Other awards have been given to Michael Glasson (Price, Utah) for his dives against Washington and Anna Braszkiewicz (Warsaw, Poland) for her dives against Boise State and Washington.

The Utes next swim meet will be against TCU on Jan. 9 in Fort Worth.