By Kyle Paul
The Idaho women’s swim and dive team will make its way to Boise for a clash with in-state and former-conference rival Boise State Saturday.
This will be the first meet of the season for a team that has seen many changes since last year. Toting an entirely new coaching staff, headed by Mark Sowa, as well as multiple young freshman and sophomore athletes, the Idaho’s swim and dive team is ready to show that it is going to be competitive.
“We’re not going to give them anything … and we’re gonna scratch and claw for everything we can get,” Sowa said.
A win against Boise State won’t come easily, though. The Broncos have been successful in swimming and diving as of late, sending multiple athletes to the NCAA Championships and winning the WAC title last year. Sowa expects his team to be competitive, and said the meet will be a nice measuring stick for the rest of this year.
“If we want to be at that level, we gotta race people at that level,” he said.
Despite finishing eighth last year in the WAC, this team is not without its accomplishments. Transfer student Paige Hunt, Kaela Pettitt and Si Jia Pang, who hails from Singapore, hold school records in their respective events and are looking to improve this year.
Sowa was quick to acknowledge their devotion and work ethic when it comes to swimming and diving.
“This team has a tremendous work ethic, now we’re focusing more on where we’re applying our effort and making sure that we’re swimming smarter,” Sowa said. “We want to be technically better, not just tough. We’re tough already — we don’t need to prove that. It’s too fast of a sport not to focus on the finer details.”
Sowa is optimistic about the future of the swim and dive program at the University of Idaho.
“There’s been a lot of interest, both regionally and internationally,” he said. “I’m excited about what we’re doing here … I think we have the ingredients to do something pretty special.”
The women’s swim and dive team heads to Boise Saturday to compete at noon against the Boise State Broncos, and following a two-week break, will travel to Seattle to compete against Seattle University and UC Davis on Oct 22. The team will not compete close to home again until Jan. 28 when they compete against Oregon State in the UI Swim Center.