Women's Swimming | 10/9/2019 2:27:00 PM

(PEPPERDINE MEET LIVE STREAMING VIDEO)

** FRIDAY'S MEET EVENTS HAVE BEEN POSTPONED DUE TO THE WILDFIRES IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. THE MEET IS NOW SCHEDULED TO TAKE PLACE IN ITS ENTIRETY ON SATURDAY.

Dixie State opens the 2019-20 season this Friday and Saturday as the Trailblazers head to sunny southern California to compete at the Pepperdine Malibu Invitational. The two-day meet will take place at the Pepperdine University Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool.

The Trailblazers are slated to compete against swimmers from San Diego State, TCU, California Baptist, Azusa Pacific, Biola, Cal Lutheran, Occidental, The Master's College and Westmont.

DSU COACHING STAFF: Tamber McAllister begins her second season as Dixie State head women's swimming coach. Last season in her first year as DSU mentor, McAllister led the Trailblazers to a third-place finish in their RMAC debut and saw eight swimmers earn all-conference honors.  
Before her arrival at DSU, McAllister served as an assistant swimming coach at BYU for two stints from 2005-11 and 2012-18. During her recent time at BYU, she spent four years as an assistant for the women's team before assisting both the men's and women's teams in stroke work. Prior to her first coaching stint at BYU, McAllister coached for one season at East High School (2004-05) in Salt Lake City, and has spent a number of seasons as a club coach in both the Salt Lake City and Provo areas.
McAllister competed collegiately at BYU from 2000-04, where she specialized in the breaststroke and IM events, and was a four-time Mountain West Conference individual champion in the 200 breast. She also competed in the 2000 United States Olympic Trials, where she placed 17^th and 27^th in the 200 and 100 breast, respectively. A native of El Dorado Hills, Calif., McAllister earned a Bachelor's degree in Health Science from BYU in 2004. Coach McAllister is joined poolside by fourth-year assistant coach Jamie Beckstrand.

DIXIE STATE VOTED SECOND IN 2019-20 RMAC POLL: Dixie State was picked to finish second in the 2019-20 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference preseason coaches' poll released on Oct. 4.
Defending RMAC champion Colorado Mesa was the overwhelming choice to repeat this upcoming season as the Mavericks collected eight of nine first place votes to finish with 64 points in the poll. DSU received the other first place nod to place second with 50 points, followed by Oklahoma Baptist (47 pts) in third, Colorado School of Mines (43 pts) in fourth and Western Colorado (31 pts) rounded out the top-five in the nine-team poll.

LAST SEASON IN THE RMAC: After joining the RMAC in 2018, the 2019-20 season will mark the second and final season the Trailblazers will be a competing member of the conference. In 2020, Dixie State will begin its transition to NCAA Division I status and will become a new member of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC).

THE 2019-20 ROSTER: Dixie State returns 16 swimmers from last season's team that finished third in it RMAC debut, including individual first team all-RMAC performer in senior Hannah Hansen, along with individual second-team selections in junior Miriam Gonzalez, and sophomore Kelsea Wright.
Hansen scored a team-high 54 points at the 2019 RMAC Championship meet and was the lone Trailblazer representative on the individual first team all-RMAC list thanks to her second place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:04.43 – NCAA "B" qualifying time). Hansen also collected second team all-conference honors with a third-place finish in the 200 breast (2:18.79), as well as in the 200 and 400 medley relay events. She enters the 2019-20 season as the DSU record holder in the 50 fly (27.06), 100 breast (1:03.81), 100 fly (57.04), 200 breast (2:17.46) and 200 IM (2:06.27).
Gonzalez earned first team all-RMAC honors as part of the 400 yard freestyle relay team, and claimed second team recognition in the individual 100 breast, and the 200 free and 200 medley relays. The junior swam legs in three school-record relay results posted at the RMAC Championships, including the 200 free (1:35.68), 400 free (3:28.88) and 200 medley (1:46.40), and she is the current DSU school record holder in the 50 free (23.80 in 2017), 50 breast (30.78 in 2017) and 100 IM (1:00.58 in 2018).
Wright collected first team all-RMAC in the 400 and 800 free relays, along with second team honors in the 200 free and 500 free. In addition, she swam legs in the 200 free and 400 medley relays, each of which garnered her second team all-conference accolades. She enters the 2019-20 season as the DSU record holder in the 100 free (51.54), 200 free (1:52.01) and 500 free (5:04.49).
In all, DSU welcomes back eight swimmers who earned all-RMAC recognition last season, including senior Audrey Hyde (200/400/800 free relays, 200 medley relay), juniors Hannah Bodkin (400 medley relay) and Megan Ruppenthal (800 free relay), and sophomores Rebecka Anderson (800 free relay, 400 medley relay) and Kenzie Chesler (200/400 free relays).
DSU also brought in 10 new freshmen to the program who will look to make an immediate impact. Eleven Trailblazers hail from Utah, while five more are from neighboring Arizona. Nine states are represented on this year's roster, including swimmers from California, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

THE 2019-20 SEASON SCHEDULE: Including this weekend's Pepperdine meet, the Trailblazers are slated to compete in 10 regular season meets overall, including home duals against Biola (Nov. 15-16), Northern Arizona (Jan. 18) and Loyola Marymount (Jan. 24), all of which are scheduled be held in DSU's new Olympic-sized HPC Pool.
The 2020 RMAC Women's Swimming and Diving Championships will be held February 12-15, in Grand Junction, Colo., while the 2020 NCAA Division II Championships will take place March 11-14, in Geneva, Ohio.

NEXT UP FOR THE TRAILBLAZERS: Dixie State heads to back to southern California next weekend to compete at the Cal State Bakersfield Invitational.