Wyoming
UW Swimmers Killed In Crash Remembered As Dedicated, Loving Teammates
LARAMIE — Standing 6-foot-6 and sporting an effortless grin, Charlie Clark feared no strangers.
“Hi, I’m Charlie Clark, who are you?” said the young man spontaneously to his coach’s wife one day.
For University of Wyoming head coach Dave Denniston, of the swimming and diving program, it was a first. Never in nine years had a student athlete walked up to his wife “out of the blue” and introduced himself, he said.
But that’s how Clark was, Denniston told the mourners at Clark’s UW memorial service Wednesday.
“Strangers were just friends that he hadn’t met yet,” said Denniston, who allowed himself a chuckle as he related a similar memory Clark’s mother had shared with him before the service.
He also recalled how Clark had set out one Sunday, with only three other people in the pool, to set the pool record in the 400 individual medley. Clark came out wearing a racing suit.
The coach said he humored the young swimmer. “OK Charlie, let’s try it,” he said.
Clark shattered the pool record by 5 seconds — “On a Sunday. Randomly.”
‘Watch This’
Clark, along with UW teammates Carson Muir and Luke Slabber died Feb. 22 in a one-vehicle rollover on Highway 287, about 5 miles south of the border Wyoming shares with Colorado. Clark was 19, Muir was 18, and Slabber was 21.
Denniston remembered all three with fondness as he fought back tears Wednesday evening in the Arena-Auditorium on campus.
“Luke’s smile always said, ‘Watch this,’” said Denniston.
Slabber came from Cape Town, South Africa, to swim for UW. He loved American culture: Domino’s pizza (pepperoni) and waffle fries; he thought ranch dressing was “some kind of nectar of the gods,” said Denniston.
And he loved any possible way to have fun.
Slabber’s smile and demeanor said “watch this” to coach Denniston, as the young athlete would post top-five and top-10 times for the program’s history.
And Muir’s smile was the biggest of anyone Denniston has seen or coached, he said. Especially after she spotted a baby cottontail rabbit right outside the pool after practice.
She was a “dedicated athlete” who battled recurring bouts of COVID-19 and strep throat this winter, but surprised Denniston by bringing him her own plan to train hard all spring and summer, then come back tougher, he said.
Her Bible
After Muir died, it fell to her friend Sophie Nutter and a few others to clean out Muir’s dorm room.
That was difficult, Nutter said, because Muir was particular about her things being orderly, even though she had brought a lizard — Godzilla — into her haven after one adventure-filled trip to a pet store in Cheyenne.
Nutter found Muir’s Bible and opened it to a random page.
“I discovered a handwritten quote: ‘Never let chasing boys be more important than chasing God,’” she said.
Nutter shared these and other memories, saying Muir was her best friend on the team. The pair would dance around to the pool music, share a lane and goof around when they could.
-
University of Wyoming swimming and diving coach Dave Denniston during a Wednesday memorial service for three teammates who died in a car crash Feb. 22, 2024. (Mark Heinz, Cowboy State Daily) -
University of Wyoming student-athletes file into a memorial for three UW swimmers who lost their lives in a car crash Feb. 22, 2024. (Mark Heinz, Cowboy State Daily) -
University of Wyoming women’s swim team member Madeline Bane speaks during a Wednesday memorial service for there of her teammates who died in a car crash Feb. 22, 2024. (Mark Heinz, Cowboy State Daily) -
University of Wyoming President Ed Seidel speaks at a Wednesday memorial on the UW Laramie campus for three swim team members who died Feb. 22, 2024. (Mark Heinz, Cowboy State Daily)
One Last Surf
Luke Slabber and Gavin Smith were best friends from the age of 12, Smith said.
On Smith’s first swim tour, he got stuck rooming with “some random guy” he didn’t know, in a room in the South Africa highlands. A thunderstorm battered the walls.
“I lugged my hard mattress over to Luke’s room,” Smith remembered. “And he let me do that.”
They couldn’t sleep because of the storm. But it was this and other “small things” that impressed on Slabber “how beautiful, kind and loving Luke was,” he said.
He hoped aloud that Slabber is somehwere, where, faced with a dwindling sunset, he can squeeze in one last surf. And he fought back tears.
“I love you my friend and I can’t wait to catch another surf with you in the future,” Smith said.
‘Wyoming Grieves’
Gov. Mark Gordon also eulogized the three, as did UW President Ed Seidel and Athletics Director Tom Burman.
“This really hurts, to stand here and think about those three wonderful lives, and the tragedy this university has experienced all too often,” said Gordon. “Wyoming grieves.”
Gordon also mourned the loss of UW student Sabrina Geller, who died this year.
She was born in Hanna, Wyoming, the governor said as he became tearful.
Those who knew the four youths now have a duty to carry forward their hopes, their futures, Gordon said.
Aaron Frume, of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, offered a brief sermon and prayer, saying God’s ways are higher than our ways, and that God is a God of hope.
He encouraged the attendees to find their hope in Him.
Because They Were Hurting
Chris “Woody” Woodard, Colorado State University swimming and diving head coach, brought many of the athletes on his women’s swim and dive team to the service.
Wearing their green team colors, they settled into UW’s yellow-backed chairs.
“We just have immense respect for this team,” Woodard told Cowboy State Daily. “To see them go through that at our Mountain West Championships was pretty difficult and it affected our team pretty profoundly.”
Clair McFarland can be reached at Clair@CowboyStateDaily.com.
SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Two men were detained in Wyoming in connection with a fatal shooting at a downtown Salt Lake hotel that killed one man.
Carlos Chee, 23, and Chino Aguilar, 21, were both wanted for first-degree felony murder after the victim, identified as Christian Lee, 32, was found dead in a room at the Springhill Suites near 600 South and 300 West.
According to warrants issued for their arrest, Chee and Aguilar met with Lee and another woman at the hotel to sell marijuana. During the alleged drug deal, Aguilar allegedly shot and killed Lee after he tried to grab at his gun.
MORE | Shootings
Investigators said they found Lee dead in the room upon arrival, as well as a single shell casing on the floor and a small amount of marijuana on the television stand.
The woman told investigators she had met Chee on a dating app and that he agreed to come to the hotel to sell her marijuana. She had been hanging out with him in the room, which Lee rented for her to use, when Lee asked them to leave. Lee was then shot and killed following a brief confrontation.
Chee and Aguilar allegedly fled the scene in a 2013 Toyota Camry with a Texas license plate that was later found outside of Rock Springs, Wyoming just a few hours later.
The two men were taken into custody and detained at the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office.
JOIN THE CONVERSATION (2)
_____
ROCK SPRINGS, Wyoming (KUTV) — A man was hospitalized with critical injuries after he was reportedly shot by a deputy responding to reports of a disturbance.
Deputies with the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office and officers with the Rock Springs Police Department responded to the Sweetwater Heights apartment complex in the 2100 block of Century Boulevard just after 4 a.m. on Monday to investigate reports of a disturbance involving an armed individual.
Information that dispatch received indicated that the individual had shot himself. When officials arrived, they found the individual on the balcony of an upstairs apartment “who appeared to have a gunshot wound consistent with the initial report,” a press release states.
MORE | Officer-Involved Shooting
During the encounter, a deputy discharged their weapon and struck the individual.
Emergency medical personnel rendered aid, and the individual was transported to an area hospital in critical condition.
No law enforcement officers or members of the public were injured during the incident.
The Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation will conduct an independent investigation.
The deputy who fired their weapon was placed on administrative leave per standard protocol.
_____
by Maggie Mullen, WyoFile
Albert Sommers, former Wyoming Speaker of the House, announced Thursday he will attempt to reclaim a seat he formerly held for more than a decade in the statehouse.
“Leadership matters,” Sommers, a lifelong cattle rancher, wrote in a press release. “Right now, the Wyoming House is too often focused on division instead of solutions. We need steady, effective leadership that solves problems—not rhetoric and political theater.”
Voters in 2013 first elected Sommers to House District 20, which encompasses Sublette County and an eastern section of Lincoln County. As a lawmaker, Sommers largely focused on health care, education and water issues. Over six terms, he rose through the ranks, serving in leadership positions and chairing committees focused on education funding and broadband.
In his announcement, Sommers highlighted his legislative work to establish funding for rural hospitals, prioritize “responsible property tax relief,” as well as the creation of the Wyoming Colorado River Advisory Committee within the State Engineer’s Office, “to ensure our water users have a voice in critical decisions affecting the Green River Valley,” he wrote.
As speaker, Sommers was a frequent target of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus as well as the DC-based State Freedom Caucus Network, even getting the attention of Fox News and other national, conservative news outlets. They often accused Sommers of not being conservative enough, and criticized him for keeping bills in “the drawer,” which has long been code for the unilateral power a speaker has to kill legislation by holding it back. (The practice of holding bills has been used to a much higher degree under Freedom Caucus leadership.)
In 2023, Sommers used the speaker’s powers to kill bills related to a school voucher program, banning instruction on gender and sexual orientation from some classrooms and criminalizing gender-affirming care for minors. At the time, Sommers defended his decision to hold back “bills that are unconstitutional, not well vetted, duplicate bills or debates, and bills that negate local control, restrict the rights of people or risk costly litigation financed by the people of Wyoming.”
He reiterated that philosophy and defended his record in his Thursday campaign announcement.
“I am a common-sense conservative who believes in getting things done. I support our core industries—oil and gas, ranching, and tourism—and I will continue to fight for the people and natural resources of Sublette County and LaBarge. I am pro-gun, pro-life, pro-family, and pro-education,” Sommers wrote. “I also take seriously my oath to uphold the U.S. and Wyoming Constitutions, which means I didn’t support bills that violated those constitutions. I read bills carefully and I voted accordingly.”
Following his term as speaker, Sommers stepped away from the House to run for Senate District 14 in 2024. He lost in the primary election to political newcomer Laura Pearson, a Freedom Caucus-endorsed Republican from Kemmerer, who also won in the general election. Her Senate win coincided with the Freedom Caucus winning control of the House.
“That race didn’t go my way, and I respected the outcome,” Sommers said in a Thursday press release. But “the direction of the Wyoming House,” since then, he said, has “raised serious concerns.”
Sommers pointed to the Freedom Caucus and its budget proposal, which, despite a funding surplus, included major cuts and funding denials. Ahead of the session, the caucus said its sights were set on shrinking spending and limiting the growth of government.
In his Thursday press release, Sommers criticized “decisions that cut food assistance for vulnerable children, reduced business opportunities, slashed funding to the University of Wyoming, eliminated resources for cheatgrass control, denied raises for state employees, and removed positions critical to protecting Wyoming’s water rights.”
Most of those proposals did not make it into the final budget bill.
Sommers also pointed to a controversy that dominated the 2026 session after a Teton County conservative activist handed out campaign checks to lawmakers on the House floor. Lawmakers in both chambers unanimously voted to ban such behavior before a House Special Investigative Committee found that the exchange did not violate the Wyoming Constitution nor did it amount to legislative misconduct. A Laramie County Sheriff’s Office criminal investigation is still underway.
But “controversies like ‘Checkgate’ undermined public trust, and decorum in the House deteriorated,” Sommers said.
“Transparency and accessibility will remain central to how I serve,” Sommers said. “As I’ve done before, I will provide regular updates on legislation, seek your input, and clearly explain my votes.”
Incumbent bows out
Rep. Mike Schmid, R-La Barge, currently represents House District 20, but announced Thursday morning that he would not seek reelection.
“It has truly been an honor to serve as your State Representative for House District 20. When I first ran, I had hoped to serve up to three terms and continue building on what I learned during my first term,” Schmid wrote in a Facebook post. “But life can change your priorities. Over the past year, my family has gone through some difficult times. My wife is dealing with serious health issues, and the death of my brother, Jim, just a few short weeks ago have made it clear to me where I need to spend my time.”
In March, Bill Winney, a perennial candidate and former nuclear submarine commander, announced he would run for House District 20.
The official candidate filing period opens May 14.
This article was originally published by WyoFile and is republished here with permission. WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.
Related
-
Idaho2 minutes agoIdaho Fish and Game reminds humans not to touch wild baby animals
-
Illinois8 minutes ago‘Millionaires tax’ would hike rate 61% on 22K Illinois small businesses
-
Indiana14 minutes agoWhy Sophie Cunningham turned down multi-year contract offers to return to Indiana Fever
-
Iowa20 minutes agoIowa DOT plans overnight I‑80 closure at northeast mixmaster
-
Kansas26 minutes agoFinal 7-Round Kansas City Chiefs 2026 NFL Mock Draft: Putting my skills to the test against an AI trained to think like Brett Veach
-
Kentucky32 minutes agoAsia Boone will return to Kentucky for senior year
-
Louisiana38 minutes agoGaining momentum: Louisiana climbs to No. 3 in the South for job growth
-
Maine44 minutes agoMaine’s legislative session has ended. Here’s what happened.