The University of Wyoming says goodbye to its three swimmers

As the sun began setting over the University of Wyoming’s Arena-Auditorium, the golden light made the scene appear warmer than it was. A man jogged through Greenhill Cemetery a short distance away. A helicopter landed across the street with ROTC students.

There was so much life amidst so much death.

People started quietly filing into the stadium around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. A space that hosted a loud basketball game the night before began to feel more like a church. Instead of replays, the large screens displayed the names and faces of the deceased. 

Some mourners came alone. Others came in groups. And still others in pairs, clutching each other and fighting back tears. Many were unsuccessful. 

A few teams in matching jackets sat in the crowd. The Colorado State University swim and dive team brought flowers.

Just as the sun’s rays disappeared, and exactly at 6:01 p.m., Aaron Frude with the UW Fellowship of Christian Athletes started the celebration of life ceremony for the three UW swim team members who died in a car crash last month: Carson Muir, Luke Slabber and Charlie Clark. 

“The Bible talks about life as being but a vapor that just appears briefly for one moment and then it vanishes,” Frude said.

Then Gov. Mark Gordon let the crowd know that all of Wyoming was mourning with them.

“God, this really hurts today,” he said. “To stand here and think about those three wonderful lives, and the tragedies that this university has experienced far too often.”

He talked about Charlie’s laugh and protective nature. And about Carson’s favorite Bible passage: Matthew 17:20. But he needed a second before talking about Luke, the student from Cape Town, South Africa.

“Luke, all he wanted to see was the American outdoors,” the governor said. 

All of them loved the outdoors.

There were mentions of other recent UW student deaths, too: including Maurizio Gabriel Justiniano Dadin and Cadet Sabrina Geller with the Wyoming Army National Guard. 

“As we grapple with the losses of Carson, Charlie, Luke, Maurizio and Sabrina, I urge you to take comfort in one another,” UW President Edward Seidel told the crowd, encouraging them to share stories, check in on each other and seek out support as needed.

The three swim team members died Feb. 22 on a stretch of Highway 287 about 10 miles south of the Wyoming state line. Sabrina was found dead on Feb. 13, east of Laramie. And Maurizio died in a January hunting accident in Goshen County.

Carson Muir

Carson was from Birmingham, Alabama. The 18-year-old was a freshman at UW, studying animal and veterinary sciences. 

Remembering her on Wednesday, most mentioned her megawatt smile, hard work, kindness and faith.

Dave Denniston, her swim coach, recalled all of the athletes’ smiles, but said hers stood out. 

“Carson’s smile was the biggest of anyone I’ve ever seen or coached,” he said. “And it was usually the biggest especially after she had seen a baby cottontail right outside the pool right before practice. She loved those little bunnies.”

She struggled after getting sick with both COVID-19 and strep throat multiple times and eventually getting her tonsils taken out. But she kept fighting, he said, kept wanting to contribute.

Student and friend Madeline Bane spoke about being with Carson in Bible study and hearing her insightful words. 

“I can honestly say she was the biggest help to me this year,” Madeline said. 

And Harry Tjaden paid her what felt like the ultimate compliment coming from a young male student athlete.

“I can now officially say, she is one of the guys,” he said. 

Sophie Nutter was her closest friend on the swim team, and remembered one of her happiest moments with Carson: getting a lizard in Cheyenne that definitely wasn’t allowed in the dorms. 

“The joy in her eyes was unimaginable,” she said, recalling how happy Carson was in just arranging Godzilla’s new home.

“It’s the small spontaneous adventures that illustrate the fondest moment I shared with her,” she said. 

After the crash, Sophie was going through Carson’s things with family and friends and found a handwritten note in a Bible.

“Never let chasing boys be more important than chasing God,” Carson had written. 

“I can confidently say she did that, and now she’s up there with the Big Man himself and her boy,” Sophie said.

Luke was Carson’s boyfriend. 

“I’m glad that the three angels are keeping each other company,” she said. 

Luke Slabber

“Luke really loved America and everything it offered,” Coach Denniston told the mourners. “He loved Domino’s pizza, especially pepperoni. Ranch dressing was some kind of nectar of the gods. Waffle fries. And any possible way to have fun.”

Luke, 21, hated practice, Denniston said — a recollection that brought smiles to many faces — but loved to race and show off his skills.

“To me, Luke’s smile always said, ‘watch this.’”

Luke’s dad would ask him why he wanted to go to Wyoming, his friend Harry told the auditorium, but Luke just said it was because he wanted to swim. Luke was a junior, studying construction management

He had a whiteboard in his room with tasks and quotes, Harry said. 

One said “find joy within the challenge,” something Harry and Luke’s dad felt was speaking directly to them after his death. 

Gavin Smith and Luke met as boys in South Africa, swimming together, competing together and rooming on occasion. Gavin called him beautiful, kind and loving.

“As we grew older, in our relationship, it kind of turned into a brotherhood,” he said. 

“You have impacted my life in ways that you cannot imagine. I try to be kinder, more generous, more loving, more laid back,” Gavin told Luke on Wednesday night.

When Gavin moved to the U.K. and later to a rural state called Wyoming, he wasn’t sure when he’d see his friend again. But in 2021, Luke showed up in Wyoming, too. The two young South African men became roommates. 

He hoped Luke was sitting on a beach at sunset, wondering whether to go out for one more quick surf before it got dark. 

“I love you, my friend, and I can’t wait to catch another surf with you in the future,” he said. 

Charlie Clark

On a random Sunday, Charlie approached his coach and declared he was going to beat the pool record with a 400-meter individual medley swim. Let’s try it, Denniston recalled telling him.

Charlie did, by a whopping five seconds, Denniston said.

“Charlie was a super-talent, no question about it,” the coach said.  

Standing at 6 feet, 6 inches, Charlie was a sophomore studying psychology. His teammates remembered the 19-year-old as being supportive and loyal and a friend to everyone. 

“Charlie was my favorite person to get a hug from after a race — good or bad,” Madeline said, though he generally made fun of her first.

And Harry said Luke’s loyalty wasn’t just to the swim team.

“I would leave my apartment and Charlie would be on my couch playing video games, usually Mario Kart,” he said. “I would get back, and he would still be there, playing Mario Kart. I would be gone for four hours, and he’d still be there! It was astonishing.”

After a race where Harry didn’t do well, but Charlie did, Charlie still took time to make sure Harry was OK and make him feel better. 

That loyalty stuck with Harry. 

“Be there for others, and others will be there for you,” Harry said. 

Goodbye in someone else’s words 

Many of the speakers sought wisdom from others while acknowledging the difficulties of understanding God’s plans. 

During his speech, Gordon quoted Ralph Waldo Emerson’s poem Merlin, noting the sudden nature of these deaths.

“‘Pass in, pass in,’ the angels all said. ‘In the upper doors. Nor spend time counting compartments on the floor. Mount to paradise by the staircase of surprise.’”

And Madeline quoted an Elevation Worship song about God being able to turn graves into gardens and shared a line from author Vicki Harrison.

“Grief is like an ocean,” Harrison wrote. “It comes in waves, ebbing and flowing. Sometimes the water is calm and sometimes it’s overwhelming. All we can learn to do is swim.”

And swimming is something they do well, Madeline said. But this is a new kind of swimming. 

“It’s swimming to survive,” she said. “It’s swimming to pull through a tragedy that threatens to drown each and every one of us. It’s swimming to make it to the other side of deep loss that celebrates and honors the people that we miss so dearly.”

When the celebration ended around 7 p.m., there was no applause. Just silence.

Many left immediately, walking into the dark night, but a large group lingered on the basketball court. They talked, laughed, wiped away tears. All the while, pictures of Carson, Luke and Charlie looked down on them from the arena’s screens.