The University of Idaho Argonaut

The University of Idaho swim team routed rival BSU Saturday 162.5-131.5.
“They should have beat us, their team is good enough,” UI coach Tom Jager said. “Our team is just a little tougher.”

BSU started off the meet with an expected 32-point lead from their diving team. Because UI has no diving team, those points went uncontested. From that moment on, the struggle for points was back-and-forth.

Adriana Quirke led the team for the second meet in a row, adding four first places to the team’s overall effort. She recorded two season bests in the meet. Freshman Alyson O’Brien also added four first place medals.

“One thing Tom keeps telling us is we have more depth than other teams,” O’Brien said.
Jager put the swimmers in events in such a way that even if BSU swam faster than expected, the depth of the team would cover for it.

“Had Boise State swam any better, we needed those points,” Jager said.
The team expected BSU to have an early start from their diving team. Another big obstacle for UI was swimming in Boise.

“We knew that was going to happen,” O’Brien said. “We knew it would come down to us out-swimming them, and thankfully we did.”
Freshmen Anna Humphrey and senior JoJo Miller both placed first in their events of the 100-yard butterfly and 200-yard breaststroke.

“They just had some freshmen in some key spots,” Jager said. “You’ve gotta’ have a bit of a mental edge. We work on that on a daily basis.”
With nine seniors on the team and no juniors, one would think Jager to be looking for swimmers to fill the gap. Jager, however, thinks differently.

“Our sophomore class goes unnoticed, but inside that class are humble leaders. They’re just biding their time, but they’ll have two years of leading the team, since we have no juniors.”
O’Brien agreed.
“We’re really close as a team,” O’Brien said. “Part of our closeness is that even the freshmen are the beginning of the team.”