HOUSTON - A number of seniors closed their careers on high notes Saturday, as Idaho women's swimming and diving finished fifth at the 2019 Western Athletic Conference Championships with 454 points. Northern Arizona secured its sixth consecutive team title and New Mexico State finished second. Northern Colorado jumped up to the third spot with 503.5 points and California Baptist secured fourth place with 474 points.

Sarah Hall pulled off a difficult double in the 1650-yard freestyle and 200-yard backstroke, finishing in the top eight in both events. Hall dropped a best time in the 200 backstroke prelims to make the championship final. She followed that with a 17:05.48 in the third heat of the 1650 freestyle, which stood up for eighth overall. The senior then returned for the backstroke finals less than three hours later. Hall again went a best time, posting a 2:03.00 to place sixth - the best finish of her career in any event at a conference championship.

Leah Fisk wrapped up her decorated career with three of the fastest 100-yard freestyle times in school history. Fisk qualified for the consolation final of the event with a 51.16 in the morning and responded by winning the heat by a half second at night with a 50.51 - the eighth-best time by a Vandal. The win in the B final gave her 126 points in her career at WAC Championships. Despite only competing at Idaho for three years after transferring from UNLV, Fisk now has the third-most conference championship points in individual swimming events in school history.

Still her day was not finished. Fisk led off the 400-yard freestyle relay with a 50.52, another top-10 mark. Fellow senior Aileen Pannecoucke swam the third leg on the relay team, while a pair of freshmen also helped Idaho bring home a fourth-place finish in 3:23.38 - the second-fastest time in program history. Natalie Crocker swam the second leg of the race and Katie Hale brought home the anchor.

Emily Kliewer saved her best 200-yard butterfly for last. Kliewer dropped nearly two seconds from her lifetime best and went 2:03.94 to finish second in the B final and become the third-fastest Vandal all-time in the event. Kliewer led a trio of Vandals in the consolation final. Jamie Huerta took fifth in the heat, while Alexis Schmidt was seventh.

Junior Aimee Iwamoto swam her way into the championship final of the 200-yard breaststroke and eventually took seventh. She also finished seventh in the 100-yard breaststroke earlier in the week.

Four more Vandals added to the scoring haul in the evening session. Hale took second in the consolation final of the 200 backstroke, swimming a 2:03.92. The freshman scored 38 points in individual events and swam on four of Idaho's relays. 

She was joined in the consolation final by Katy Older, who finished 17th in prelims but was added to the B final after a medical scratch. It was the first scoring swim of Older's career after finishing 17th in prelims four times the last two years.

Brianna Lucien scored a 13th-place finish in the 1650 freestyle and Lauren Votava completed her career with an appearance in the consolation final of the 200 breaststroke.

The conference championship meet wraps up the 2018-19 season for the swimmers. Idaho's divers will compete at the NCAA Zone E Championships in two weeks.