The following is a press release courtesy of Idaho Swimming & Diving:
The Idaho Swim and Dive team came back from winter break ready to compete and won by a team score of 167 to 133 against conference opponent New Mexico State. The Vandals won 10 of 16 events tonight and showed great promise heading into the second half of the season.
“We love racing and it’s been too long,” Head Coach Mark Sowa said. “We focused on training for a little over a month but there’s no substitute for racing a good opponent. We were a little rusty in spots, but we also did some really good things too and i’m pretty darn excited about that. Overall a very good performance.”
The relays were strong for the Vandals tonight as they won both the 200 medley relay and the 200 free relay. Rachel Millet, Cara Jernigan, Jamie Sterbis and Erica Anderson raced 200 medley relay with a time of 1:45.71. Sterbis, Anderson, Sami Hendricks and Kirah Monks raced the 200 free relay with a time of 1:36.03
One of the stars of the meet was senior swimmer Rachel Millet. Millet won all three of her individual events as well as the 200 medley relay. She finished the 200 free with a time of 1:52.10, the 100 free with a time of 51.97, and the 200 IM with a time of 2:05.58.
“Like a lot of team we’re coming off our peak training,” Sowa said. “They’re a little beat up but they’re ready to race. We have to get healthy and we have to fine tune a lot of things.”
The diving events were also great for the Vandals tonight. Freshmen Nikki Imanaka placed second in the 3-Meter diving event with a score of 214.58. Freshmen Maren Seljevold also placed second in the 1-Meter dive with a score of 214.58.
“I haven’t seen them compete in a while but from what I can see they’re stronger, they’re degree of difficulty has increased,” Sowa said. “They’re going to be there at the end of the season.”
The Vandals will be racing at home again on Saturday, January 24th at 1 p.m. at the UI Swim Center.