MOSCOW, Idaho - For the first time since the Idaho swimming and diving program's reinstatement, the Vandal women are on a three-match win streak.
Idaho put down Western Athletic Conference foe Nevada by a 151-92 margin in its first home meet of the year to give the team three dual-meet wins in a row. The Vandals beat San Diego on Nov. 7 and Seattle on Nov. 13.
Head swimming coach Tom Jager called the meet a total team effort by the Vandals, and said that it was the first time this year that the team had put together solid performances across the board.
"We expected a close meet and we knew that the whole team needed to swim well, and that's something that we'd struggled with as a team," Jager said. "Today, we all swam well, so that's probably the biggest thing I get out of this."
After the Wolf Pack opened the meet with a win in the 400-yard medley relay, Idaho swimmers won the next six events and took at least the top two places in each one. In all, Idaho claimed victories in nine of the meet's 13 events, including 1-2 finishes in seven individual races.
There were three double-winners among the Vandals on Friday, as Kaela Pettitt took both the 500- and 1000-yard freestyle events, Treasa Ring won the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly, and Alyson O'Brien took the 100- and 200-yard freestyle races. O'Brien also swam a leg of Idaho's first-place 200-yard freestyle relay.
Jager also pointed out Cortnee Hanson, who finished second in the 1000-yard freestyle, rested for about five minutes, then won the 400-yard individual medley. She came back later in the meet to take second in the 500-yard freestyle.
Even with the team's solid swims, Jager said he and his coaching staff still see plenty of room for improvement in the upcoming weeks.
"We haven't done any detail work yet in the season, and that's been planned, because I wanted to see how fast we could go before we really get down to the nitty-gritty," Jager said. "My kids are swimming fast, be they're a little bit sloppy on the walls and a little bit sloppy in the starts.
"You have all those little details that we haven't put much of an emphasis on, but you can see that our kids are in really good shape this year."
In the diving events, Nevada's Aniesa Debaji won both the 1-meter and 3-meter events, and the Wolf Pack took the top three places in each. Idaho diving coach Niko Dalman said that he was still pleased with what he saw from the Vandals. Senior Amanda Morrow competed despite just returning to practice from an ankle injury, and Dalman said that freshman Rachel Klancher has shown even more progress, and that, "She just continues to get better every single day."
The Vandal women will have nearly a full month to train before their next action, a dual meet at New Mexico State on Jan. 2, but Jager said that the team won't take its time off lightly, because "the meat of the schedule" awaits the Vandals in early January.
