Several members of the Idaho Vandals swim and dive team came away with individual victories Tuesday, but the team ultimately fell to New Mexico State 181-119.
“Well we haven’t competed in six weeks and it showed in the first half of the meet,” head coach Mark Sowa said.
Freshman Sarah Mabee-Hall led the way for the swim and dive team, claiming a victory in both the 500 and 200 free. Mabee-Hall won the 500 with a time of 5:14:89 and took the 200 with a time of 1:56:33.
Sophomore all-around swimmer Cara Jernigan and freshman Aileen Pannecoucke also collected victories Tuesday. Jernigan won the 100 breaststroke in 1:05:99 while Pannecoucke took the 50 free in 54:29.
Although the Vandals received strong performances from several underclassmen, the team could not compete with the speed of the Aggie swimmers.
“We just had two great weeks of training that finished with a very fast intersquad meet,” Sowa said. “I think we expected that to carry over rather than needing to recreate that intensity. We’re a young team, and we paid the price for that mistake.”
Despite the loss to New Mexico State, Sowa said that he is positive that the team will make the necessary adjustments moving forward to their next meet.
“The positive side is that we were much better in the second half but it was too little too late,” Sowa said. “We will learn from this, get better, and be much sharper against a very good Oregon State team.”
The Idaho swim and dive team is scheduled to host Oregon State Jan. 23 for the team’s Senior Meet at the UI Swim Center in Moscow.
Josh Grissom can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @GoshJrissom