For the second year in a row, the Idaho swim and dive team dominated the Seattle U Redhawks in a dual meet. Idaho beat Seattle 177-85 Saturday in Seattle. Saturday’s score was almost an exact repeat of last season’s event in October 2012 when Idaho beat Seattle 175-86.
The Vandals swam very consistently placing first in every event except two and taking at least one of the three top positions in every event. Of the 13 events in the meet, Idaho took first and second in 11 and third in six. Idaho managed to accumulate the majority of the available points in the meet by not allowing Seattle many chances to get in a high scoring position.
In the two instances when Seattle took the top spot Idaho still took the second spot.
“Today was a nice win for us over a much improved Seattle team,” Idaho coach Mark Sowa said. “Though it wasn’t the prettiest racing we’ve done, I thought our athletes competed really well.”
Junior Rachel Millet won all three of her events — the 200-yard freestyle (1:56.67), the 100 backstroke (57.33) and the 500 freestyle (5:04.28). She remains undefeated this season.
Idaho’s best events of the day were the 100 backstroke and the 50 freestyle. In both events, Idaho took the top three positions. The events were won by Millet in the 100 backstroke and by senior Megan Venlos in the 50 freestyle (24.29).
Venlos had one of the best performances of the day winning both of her individual events. She had a victory in the 100 freestyle (53.01) in addition to her 50 freestyle win and was part of the group that won the 400 freestyle relay. In all, she helped Idaho earn 29 points against Seattle.
With the win Saturday, Idaho’s record improves to 4-1 with the sole loss coming on Nov. 2 from conference favorites Northern Arizona.
“As we head toward the halfway point of the season I believe that we are starting to figure some things out which we need to carry over into training,” Sowa said. “Still, we are making progress which is a good thing.”
Idaho has only one more conference meet before the WAC Championships
The swim and dive team will not compete again until Nov. 22 in Houston for the Houston invitational.
Idaho does not race in another conference meet until Sat, Jan. 18 against New Mexico State in Las Cruces, N.M. Idaho will return to the UI Swim Center on Sat, Jan, 25 for senior night against Oregon State.
Curtis Ginnetti can be reached at [email protected]