The Vandal Swim and Dive team took to the pool again today in the UI Swim Center and came out victorious. The Vandals swept two conference opponents today beating Seattle U 218-76 and Cal State-Bakersfield 174-126.
“We needed a win like that,” Coach Mark Sowa said. “I challenged them last night and asked them what kind of team they wanted to be and we came out today and were fantastic. We still had some hiccups but we can't complain. It was awesome and I'm very proud of these girls and the way they performed.”
The Vandals won 10 of the 16 events today including both the 400 medley relay and the 200 free relay. Freshman distance swimmer Christine Renzini continued her dominant swimming by winning the 1,000 free with a time of 10:27.24 and the 500 free with a time of 5:10.42.
Another great Vandal performance came from junior swimmer Jamie Sterbis. Sterbis won both the 100 fly with a time of 56.71 and the 200 fly with a time of 2:03.46. She was also part of the 400 medley relay team and 200 free relay team that took first as well. Senior Rachel Millet also had a great day and won the 200 IM with a time of 2:05.64. She also placed second in the 200 free with a time of 1:51.68, just two-tenths of a second behind the leader, and second in the 100 free with a time of 51.72, just one-tenth of a second behind the leader. Millet also swam in the first place 400 medley relay team.
“These girls never waiver,” Sowa said. “They don't panic, they don't waste energy judging one performance and they look at it objectively. That's something we talk about. We look at it objectively, learn from it, move on and look toward the next race. We're getting better at that but it's not perfect yet. Across the board we had a really good team effort.”
The divers also made a statement today as freshman Nikki Imanaka placed second in the 3-meter diving with a score of 230.32. Junior diver Delaney Peugh placed third in the 1-meter diving with a score of 240.67.
“It's a progression with our divers so right now the degree of difficulty in their dives isn't what it's going to be for conference,” Sowa said. “Their working into that stuff and I like what I see. Coach Gufford does a tremendous job with them.”
Another story from today was the men's teams from Seattle U and Cal State-Bakersfield made the trip into Moscow to race against each other. This was the first time there has been a men's meet in the UI Swim Center since 1984, the last year the Vandals had a men's team of their own. Cal State-Bakersfield won the dual 170.5-123.5.
“It's nice to get some wins for our hometown crowd and it was really fun to watch the men's meet here,” Sowa said.
The Vandals will be back in action Friday, Nov. 21, as the divers travel to Tuscon, Ariz. for the Wildcat Invite and the swimmers travel to Rutgers University for the Frank Elm Invite.
