The Vandal Swim and Dive team took to their home pool tonight as they raced against conference opponent Northern Arizona. The Vandals put up big numbers but came up short in the end losing 185-115.
“Hats off to the Lumberjacks, they swam and dove very well,” Coach Mark Sowa said. “I'm not sure they knew what they were in for when they stepped in here today. But as always, we take consolation in the fact that we brought out the best in our competition because they swam very well, so hats off to that.”
Despite the loss, the Vandals had some shining moments worth noting. The relays teams continued to be dominant as the Vandals won both the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:45.88 and the 400 free relay with a time of 3:33.96.
Freshman swimmer Christine Renzini had another great swim in the 1,000 free event. Her time was just three-tenths of a second off the school record and placed second in the race.
“Northern Arizona prides themselves of their distance program and for her to be second is a great thing,” Sowa said.
Senior Rachel Millet won two of her three individual events today while also swimming two races back to back. She started by winning the 200 free with a time of 1:51.94. Then, with just a few minutes of rest, she dove back in and placed second in the 100 back with a time of 58.53. She also won the 200 back with a time of 2:03.61.
“The neat thing is that we had some moments of brilliance today too that I'm pretty darn excited about,” Sowa said. “We can now step back and look at that with some perspective I think there are some very encouraging results.”
The Vandals will be back in action tomorrow starting with swimming at 9 a.m. in the UI Swim Center. Swimming will be starting at noon.
“Our team is a competitive team and we don't back down from races,” Sowa said. “Sometimes you just get beat and that is okay, it's what you do with that and finish out the rest of the season. I don't believe getting beat is adversity, that's just competition and how you deal with that is going to dictate who you are at the end.”
