Vandals Split Tri-Dual
MOSCOW, Idaho – Idaho women's swimming and diving split its tri-dual Saturday at the U of I Swim Center, beating Seattle (251-41) and falling just short against Northern Arizona (154-146). The Vandals (1-3) picked up six individual wins and took the five-time defending Western Athletic Conference champion Lumberjacks down to the final relay.
Â
"That was awesome," said head coach
Mark Sowa. "That's what this sport is all about. To be the champion, you have to be really, really good and we just needed one more relay to be really, really good today. I feel great about the meet as a whole. It wasn't pretty racing, but it was really gutsy racing."
Â
The first relay set the tone for the day. The Vandals and Lumberjacks traded leads in the 400-yard medley relay, until NAU claimed the victory by less than three tenths of a second thanks to a strong anchor leg from Elisa Rodriguez to edge
Leah Fisk.
Â
Fisk rebounded quickly in the 200-yard freestyle. In third at the halfway point, Fisk turned it on for the next 50 to take the lead and held on to clock a 1:53.81 and win by four one-hundredths of a second. Teammates
Sarah Hall and
Aileen Pannecoucke took third and fourth, respectively.
Â
Freshmen Katie Hale and Emily Dietz kept the momentum going with a 1-2 finish in the 100-yard backstroke. The Lumberjacks snatched victories in the next three events, but Idaho stayed within striking distance thanks to taking second, third and fourth in both the 100-yard breaststroke and the 50-yard freestyle.
Â
Hall got the Vandals back in the winner's circle, cruising to victory in the 200-yard backstroke, followed by a win from
Lauren Votava in the 200-yard breaststroke. After NAU stretched its lead with a one-two finish in the 500-yard freestyle, Idaho answered back with
Emily Kliewer and Hale taking the top spots in the 100-yard butterfly.
Â
"It's really hard to single things out, but a couple of swims were great," Sowa said. "Leah's win in the 200 freestyle was really cool. Going one-two in the 100 back was great. Going two-three-four in a couple of events shows the kind of depth we have."
Â
Brianna Lucien turned in a monster freestyle leg to come from behind and win the 400-yard individual medley, the final individual event of the meet. Her win gave the Vandals a shot at taking the meet with only the 200-yard freestyle relay left. Idaho gave it a run, including Hale posting the fastest anchor leg in the field, but came up just short.
Â
NAU took the top spot in both diving events, with the Vandals placing second and third in each.
Nikki Imanaka claimed second place on both boards.
Â
"I love what I see right now," said Sowa. "NAU has won numerous championships and they were by far the best team in the conference last year. To come down to the last relay means we closed the gap a little bit. We have to keep scratching, clawing and putting pressure on them."
Idaho wraps up a season-opening home stand Saturday (Nov. 10), against Wyoming. The meet is slated to start at 10 a.m., in the U of I Swim Center.
