The Vandals swim and dive team enjoyed a positive weekend going 1-1 over their two days
of competition.
Friday, the Vandals played host to Northern Colorado and routed them 207.5 to 92.5.
“It’s fun to race a conference opponent, and I think northern Colorado is really, really good in spots and a really good challenge for our girls,” Idaho coach Mark Sowa said. “There were some performances that were as good as what we finished the season last year with.”
The freshmen continued to show improvement from their opening weekend against Boise State, with Hannah Stahmer winning the 500-yard freestyle and Taylor Lee Strachan winning the 100-yard backstroke and the 100-yard butterfly against
Colorado State.
“The freshmen performed much better than they did two weeks ago,” Sowa said. “I think that first meet is always difficult to try and figure out collegiate racing. I think they had a much more
confident approach.”
Seniors Paige Hunt and Mairin Jameson took first and second place respectively in the 3-meter dive, while sophomore Delaney Peugh
took sixth.
Saturday was the swimming and diving edition of the battle on the Palouse, as Washington State traveled to Moscow to take on the Vandals. The meet came down to the last heat, as Washington State squeaked by with a 151 to 143 victory over Idaho. The border rivalry pitted the Vandals against their old coach, Tom Jager, who coached seven seasons at Idaho from 2004 to 2011.
“We brought out the best in the cougars, they had to swim extraordinarily well to beat us, and that is always a good thing,” Sowa said. “These guys arguably swim in the best swimming and diving conference in the country, and we made them work for everything they got today.”
Junior Rachel Millet had a stand out-day, winning all of her individual events in the 200-yard freestyle, 200-yard backstroke, and 200-yard individual medley.
The Vandals faced a tough challenge by competing in two meets in back-to-back days.
“Some of them paid for swimming really hard yesterday, and it was hard for them to get up today, and that’s okay,” Sowa said. “That is why we do this stuff, and that is why we put together challenges for them early on in the season.”
Senior Paige Hunt continues to have success on the diving board. Despite having no competition because Washington State doesn’t have a dive team, Hunt finished just seven points shy of breaking her own school record of 319.05 on the 3-meter dive, with a 312.75.
“We’re dying to be great in February and we will be and we saw glimpses of it these past two days. I couldn’t be happier where we are at,” Sowa said. “Do I enjoy Losing? No not at all, but again, I am incredibly proud of these young ladies, this was very
good effort.”