Junior Blaise Wittenauer-Lee (Portland, Ore.) picked up three of Seattle University’s five event victories, but the University of Idaho showed too much depth for the Redhawks, as the Vandals came away with a 160-102 dual meet victory Saturday at the Connolly Center Pool.
After swimming the second leg of the Seattle U 200 medley relay that finished second in 1:49.28, Wittenauer-Lee came from behind and out-touched Cara Jernigan of Idaho in the 100 breaststroke to win that event by 5/100ths of a second with a time of 1:05.04. Annika Perry (Reno, Nev.) finished third in the race with a mark of 1:08.42.
In the 200 breaststroke, Wittenauer-Lee defeated Jernigan by two seconds with a time of 2:19.97. She finished off the day with a 4.2-second victory in the 200 individual medley, posting a time of 2:08.30, followed by Perry in second place in 2:12.51.
The other two Seattle U victories came in the butterfly events, starting with a 1-2 finish in the 200 butterfly, as Kaitlyn Overstreet (Cottonwood Heights, Utah) rallied to touch the wall first in 2:08.61, just ahead of Jane Liggett (Portland, Ore.) in second place in 2:08.83. Liggett would emerge victorious in a close 100 butterfly, finishing in 58.51 seconds, just over 2/10ths of a second ahead of two Idaho swimmers.
Emma Foster (Clancy, Mont.) finished second in the 1000 freestyle in 10:51.32, while Emily Gough (San Clemente, Calif.) earned a second-place finish in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:56.09. Paige Treff (Orland, Calif.) finished second in both the 50 freestyle in 24.35 seconds and in the 100 freestyle in 53.77 seconds, plus she posted the fastest 100 freestyle split of anybody in the 400 freestyle relay at 52.71 seconds, helping her team to a third place finish in the event in 3:38.80.
“We were a little lackluster overall, although we did have some strong performances. Blaise did a great job all day, Jane had a great finish in the 100 butterfly, as did Kaitlyn in the 200 butterfly, as she charged home. Overall, we missed out on a bunch of things that we need to continue working on,” Seattle U head coach Craig Nisgor said.
During the first weekend of December, some Seattle University swimmers may have the opportunity to compete at the U.S. Winter Nationals or the Short Course Invitational at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, Wash. The Redhawk women will face Washington State in a dual meet Saturday, Dec. 5, starting at 12 noon at the Connolly Center Pool.
