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 African 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 gestures 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.
“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 Frude, 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.”
The mountain west conference happened in Texas the same week the three UW swimmers died.
Woodard said his Colorado team wanted to be in Laramie for the UW swimmers during the memorial.
The service attracted between 100 and 200 attendees and a handful of state legislators, including Senate President Ogden Driskill and Sens. Eric Barlow and Mike Gierau.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
