Five seniors will compete in Moscow for the last time Saturday when Vandal swim and dive faces Washington State University on senior night.
Savannah Bettis, Calleagh Brown, Katie Hendricks, Si Jia Pang and Chelsey Stanger will compete in the UI Swim Center for the last time as Vandals.
The Vandals will swim at home for the second straight week after exclusively competing on the road since October. Last week’s meet ended in a 147-147 tie against Oregon State.
“It’s really nice (to have two consecutive home meets), it couldn’t have come at a better time because we are about to go to our (WAC) championship meet,” Brown said. “I guess this is just kind of like extra rest for us and it’s less stressful.”
Idaho coach Mark Sowa agreed with Brown and said he sees an opportunity to win at the senior night meet, but realizes WSU will be as competitive as any team on the schedule.
WSU fell to OSU 119-143 the day before the Beavers swam against the Vandals. WSU has two wins this season coming against UC San Diego and Seattle earlier this month. Last year, WSU beat Idaho 48-157 in Pullman.”I expect (WSU) to come out racing, come out racing fast,” Sowa said. “They swam really well against Oregon State last week … we have our hands full with them. It should be a lot of fun.”
Although the Vandals have a regional rivalry with WSU, Sowa said his team treats every meet like a rivalry.
This weekend, his team will focus on honoring the seniors in their last home meet at Idaho.
“We are incredibly appreciative of the job that (the seniors) have done,” Sowa said. “They are the leaders on this team. They are five very, very different personalities but taken as a whole, their personalities steer the ship that is Vandal swimming and diving.”
Sowa said Brown, Bettis and Stanger are “three of the best butterfliers in school history” while Pang and Hendricks are “two of the most accomplished sprinters in school history.”
Brown and Bettis explained some of the emotions and feelings that go along with senior night.
“I think it’s going to be really emotional but all good emotions,” Brown said. “We’ve been together for four years and we’ve been through a lot … you can’t really describe the feelings except that you share them with those five people.”
Bettis, who broke the Idaho 200 fly record last week against OSU, also commented on her final meet in Moscow.
“This has been a long time coming,” Bettis said. “It is bittersweet that it’s going to be over soon.”
Senior night will be bittersweet because the Vandals will face their former coach, Tom Jager. Jager coached Idaho for seven seasons before taking the coaching position at WSU in May 2011.
“I think it’s actually really cool that coach Jager gets to be here to see these seniors off,” Sowa said. “He coached them for three years. I’m absolutely positive that he wishes them well … It’s nice it comes full circle.”