Idaho Swim and Dive returned to the pool after a two month break in their schedule.
The team has not lost a step, winning their meets against Northern Colorado and Oregon State over the weekend.
The Vandals (5-5) beat Northern Colorado 174-126 on Friday behind some strong performances from the seniors and the divers.
The dive team took the top three spots on the podium in both the one-meter and three-meter springboard events. Senior Hailey Kessler with scores of 294.15 and 290.92, respectively, in each. Both scores were career bests for Kessler. Junior Janelle Lucas and senior Maren Seljevold rounded out the top three for Idaho in both events.
“The senior divers were awesome,” Idaho head coach Mark Sowa said. “We don’t get to train the swimmers and divers together much, but they are tremendous. Our strength coach always says that they are some of the hardest-working athletes on campus.”
The swimmers did more than enough to hold up their end of the bargain.
Senior Cara Jernigan set the tone from the first race and never looked back. She managed a 28.81 in the breaststroke leg of the 200-yard medley relay, which was nearly a second and a half better than every other breaststroke in the event. Jernigan went on to dominate both the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke events in the same fashion that she owned the relay. Her next closest competitor in the 100 finished a second and a half behind, and she finished the 200 a whole three seconds ahead.
“Cara was very excited to swim today,” Sowa said. “And she was really good, especially her underwaters. I was excited about the breaststrokers as a whole. Cara really took those girls under her wings.”
Sophomore Leah Fisk rounded out the resounding win for the Vandals on Friday. Fisk won the 100- and 200-yard freestyle races with times of 53.13 and 1:54.66, respectively.
She even managed to anchor the 400-yard freestyle relay team with a 52.37 leg that allowed the team to overcome a 1.48 second deficit.
“Leah is a good swimmer and on that relay she really was the hammer,” Sowa said. “I also know she has room to grow in the 500 and the potential to make that a great race for her.
The win was especially meaningful for Jernigan, Kessler, and Seljevold, as the team was celebrating its seniors in their final home weekend.
Idaho kept the momentum going against Oregon State at home again on Saturday.
The Vandals won nine of the meet’s 14 events and won 174-86 when all was said and done.
Senior Maryann Kok Cher Ling anchored the 200-yard medley relay, erasing a deficit and cruising to a 1:48.99 to give Idaho the win.
“Maryann is one of the best sprinters we’ve had in this program,” Sowa said. “We trust her on the anchor leg and trust her to get her hand on the wall, which is why she will more than likely be on that medley relay for us at WAC.”
Idaho secured three consecutive wins to take control of the meet, and Fisk continued her strong weekend to put the icing on the cake.
The sophomore won the 1,000-meter freestyle by 18 seconds and beat junior teammate Aileen Pannecoucke by a second to take first in the 100-meter freestyle as well.
“We have the utmost confidence in Leah and are really proud of her performance,” Sowa said. “This weekend was a big step for her.”
In total, six different Vandals recorded individual victories and Idaho teams won both of the meet’s relays. Oregon State does not field a diving team, but Seljevold still managed to break a school record with a 337.7 on the three-meter springboard event that did not count toward the meet score.
“We competed every stroke to the end, and a couple of our finishes were really good,” Sowa said. “That’s stuff we talk about all the time. It’s what can really separate teams at a conference championship. We will be successful because of our depth. Every swim counts and every dive counts. Even if you’re not on the scoring roster, how you compete moves this team forward.”
Idaho will put their perfect home record on the line and finish out the regular season with a home meet against College of Idaho 11 a.m. Feb. 10 in the UI Swim Center.
Jonah Baker can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @jonahpbaker