It was a close meet against a rival, there was a huge home crowd and it was senior night for the Vandals Saturday at the Swim Center. After the up and down meet, Vandal swim and dive surged to a convincing victory with the last event of the day to beat Washington State 159.5-134.4.
The meet couldn’t have ended better for senior Si Jia Pang. The Vandals had the lead going into the final event of the day — the 400 freestyle relay, and sealed the deal with the winning time of 3:28.80. Pang swam the anchor leg of the relay.
“It was just, like, all the emotions … everything just came out all
at once,” Pang said. “I’m happy that we won, I’m kind of relieved that we did too.”
Idaho coach Mark Sowa said the 400 freestyle relay win was impressive because WSU has a lot of depth in freestyle events. Joining Pang on the relay were freshmen Rachel Millet and Erica Anderson and sophomore Megan Venlos.
Despite a successful ending, the first half of the meet was a back-and-forth battle. The Vandals clung on through six lead changes in the first nine events. WSU coach Tom Jager said his team needs to work on finishing meets. Jager was Idaho’s coach before taking the job at WSU last spring.
“(For the first half of the meet) we were swimming good and where we needed to be,” Jager said. “And then we lost a couple close races.”
Millet won all three individual events she competed in and started in the winning 400 free relay. Her first victory came in the 200 freestyle with a 1:51.99 finish. Millet’s other wins came in the 100 freestyle (51.72) and the 100 butterfly (55.89).
“Rachel (Millet), for lack of a better word, is a stud,” Sowa said. “She’s a pleasure to work with. She’s incredibly humble. She loves the sport, loves competing day in and day out. She is constantly trying to make her teammates around her better.”
Another freshman who turned heads on senior night was Erica Anderson. In addition to being a member of the winning 400 freestyle relay, she won the 200 backstroke in 2:03.86. Anderson also placed second in the 100 backstroke and 200 medley relay with seniors Savannah Bettis, Pang and junior Kelsie Saxe.
Jager had positive things to say about his former swimmer.
“Erica Anderson, gold medal local Moscow kid, she was the difference in that meet,” Jager said. “That’s probably what you talk about bittersweet. I’ve been somewhat coaching that kid since she was 12 years old. I knew she would be great.”
In addition to contributing to the second place 200 medley, Saxe won both breaststroke events. She took the 100 breaststroke in 1:05.16 and the 200 breaststroke in 2:21.82. Idaho went 1-2 in the 200 with freshman Laura Griffing placing second in 2:24.58.
The Vandals also did well on the diving boards. Junior Paige Hunt won both the 3-meter and 1-meter dives with final scores of 266.75 and 258.25.
After celebrating its victory, Idaho will prepare for the WAC Championship meet Feb. 22 in San Antonio, Texas. For now, the Vandals are happy to send their seniors out with a victory. Seniors Savannah Bettis, Calleagh Brown, Katie Hendricks, Si Jia Pang and Chelsey Stanger competed for the final time in Moscow.
“We are always happy to get a win,” Sowa said. “More than anything it means so much to have our seniors get a win on their last home meet and to do it in front of such an awesome crowd … That means everything to us to honor those five seniors. They’re just tremendous.”