Idaho Vandal sports competed over the weekend with men’s and women’s track and field, tennis, basketball and women’s swim and dive.
The weekend was filled with competition and plenty of excitement. With some teams being victorious, others were disappointed with the outcome.
Track & Field
Idaho competed in the Idaho Team Challenge. The men won the meet with 129 points and the women came in second with 137 points.
Senior thrower Zachary Short won the shot put with a season-best 19.49 meters and junior thrower Cullen Williams took first in the weight throw with a career-best of 19.26 meters.
Short moved to 13th place in national performance and is first in the Big Sky Conference (BSC). Williams moved up to third in the BSC.
“I was really pleased with how the meet went. When we were organizing it originally, we designed it as a team scoring meet to get us ready as we move forward to conference championships and start competing in a team field,” Tim Cawley, the director of track and field/cross country, said. “For the men to win it and the women to come in second was really exciting and a good indication of where we are.”
Other standout performers include senior jumper Rechelle Mead and sophomore jumper Zachary Nunis. Both Vandal men and women’s teams took first in the long jump.
Mead won with a leap of 5.96 meters and Nunis took first with a leap of 7.29 meters.
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Nunis also took first in the triple jump with 14.63 meters; the fourth-best mark in the BSC.
Idaho will be split up this weekend as some of the team will be in the Tyson Invitational in Arkansas and the rest will be in Boise for the Bronco Challenge.
Swimming and Diving
Idaho celebrated its eight seniors on senior day as the Vandals defeated conference rival New Mexico State 172-126.
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Senior Aimee Iwamoto won in the 200-yard medley and picked up individual wins in the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke.
Senior diver Heather Carbon picked up wins in the one-meter and three-meter diving competitions.
Freshman Haylee Buyers earned two wins in the 200-yard backstroke and the individual 400-yard medley.
The swim and dive team will be in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) championships later in the month.
Men’s Tennis
Idaho picked up their second win of the season, defeating Lewis-Clark State College (LCSC) 6-1 in total points. The Vandals picked up five singles wins over LCSC with a dominant win from senior Guilherme Scarpelli who finished with a score of 6-1,6-1.
Scarpelli won both sets while freshmen Althaf Dhaifullah and Vivek Ramesh opened up the match with a first set doubles win of 6-1. Dhaifullah and Ramesh secured singles wins as well.
“It was nice to get the win,” Head Coach Daniel Hangstefer said. “It was a well-fought match on both sides. We need to make sure we are a bit more aggressive in singles matches. Now it’s time to continue to keep working in practice.”
The Vandals move to an even record of 2-2, and they will host George Fox and Whitman College in Lewiston next weekend.
Women’s Tennis
Idaho has had a troubling start to the season, recording a 0-4 record after losing back-to-back matches in Eugene, Oregon, against the University of Oregon on Friday and the University of Maryland on Saturday.
The Vandals fell to Oregon 5-2 and trailed early after losing every doubles match.
Juniors Laura Spataro and Melissa Hutchet picked up wins in singles matches. Spataro won her first singles match of the season and earned the 25th win of her career.
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“We played a very good team today. We were outplayed in doubles, but we competed in singles. Some of the matches could have gone our way, but we pulled through in others. So, this is progress in the right direction,” Head Coach Babar Akbar said.
Idaho fell to Maryland 4-0 after losing the doubles point and the first three singles matches.
The last three matches were left unfinished.
Senior Maggie Chen was ahead in her match with a 6-3, 4-4 lead in the second set along with junior Marta Magalhaes who led 6-3, 3-3 when the match was called.
The Vandals will look to bounce back Sunday against conference rival Idaho State.
“We played a really tough team today. The girls battled for everything,” Akbar said. “Maryland was dominant in the doubles. I think there were a couple of close games, but they just played better big points.”
Basketball
Both Idaho men and women’s teams fell short to Montana Saturday.
Idaho men’s basketball (6-17, 2-10 BSC) fell to Montana (14-10, 10-3 BSC) 81-72 despite senior guard Trevon Allen recording a career-high 36 points on Tribal Nations night.
Idaho was ahead 34-33 at halftime with Allen leading the way for the Vandals.
Freshman guard Gabe Quinnett hit four three-pointers and finished the game with a career-high 14 points.
Montana won the battle in the paint against Idaho 50-28 and slipped away with a win in Moscow. Montana remains the No. 1 seed in the BSC.
“Overall we battled. There were some lapses that we have to fix,” Allen said. “I like the way each person came out tonight, especially this guy over here (Quinnett). We competed and played hard.”
Idaho women’s basketball (13-8, 8-4 BSC) came up short against Montana (15-6, 11-1 BSC) 69-60 in Missoula, Montana.
Idaho led early in the first period 12-4 after opening up the game with six straight points. Idaho ended the first period with 22 points, with senior guard Lizzy Klinker scoring 11.
The Vandals struggled in the second period with just four points scored but would outscore Montana in the second half 34-33.
Montana is on a seven-game winning streak and sits first in the BSC, however, Idaho sits in third with a two-game losing streak.
“That second quarter is really what turned this game around,” Head Coach Jon Newlee said. “We have had two bad quarters against (Montana). We survived it at home but didn’t survive it today. You can’t have a quarter like that and think you’re going to beat a team like this in this environment.”
Both teams will travel to Cheney, Washington, to face-off in a double-header against Eastern Washington University on Thursday night.
Armin Mesinovic can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @arminmesinovic