Boise State swimming and diving ran its home winning streak to 21-straight meets Saturday with a 150-104 victory over Oregon State at the Boise West YMCA.
Saturday’s meet served as the regular-season finale for the Bronco swimmers, who will now turn their attention to the Mountain West Championships, set for Feb. 17-20 in College Station, Texas. The Bronco divers will compete at the AFA Invite in Colorado Springs, Colo., next weekend in their final tuneup for the championship meet.
“We’re two and a half weeks out from the championship, so we want to maximize every chance we get to race,” said Boise State head coach Jeremy Kipp. “Now it’s all about tapering before that meet, but it’s always good to get a win over a Pac-12 team, I have a lot of respect for Coach Leibowitz and his squad. Our women are good, and ready to tune up.”
The Broncos turned in the top times in 13 of the 14 events, with the Beavers taking only the 1,000 free. Freshman Laura Williams paced the Broncos with three wins (200 medley relay, 100 and 200 breaststrokes), while Brittany Aoyama, Katelyn Martin and Sam Wicks each had three wins. Felicity Cann (200 free, 200 IM) and Ally Kleinsorgen (100 and 200 backs) each captured a pair of individual events.
“It’s really good [for our younger swimmers to get wins] and confidence is good this time of year. Two-and-a-half weeks out from championships, the times don’t necessarily have to be fast but it’s good for them to race well and get wins,” Kipp said about wins by freshmen swimmers Kleinsorgen, Williams and Mandy Barnes.
Boise State took a 94-37 lead at the halfway point of the meet on the strength of six wins, with two apiece from Martin and Williams. The quartet of Sam Wicks, Williams, Aoyama and Martin opened the meet with a victory in the 200 medley relay, clocking a 1:42.86, nearly six seconds ahead of Oregon State (1:48.60). The Bronco “B” quartet of Taylor Padington, Dakota Isaak, Monica Bottelberghe and Kleinsorgen took third in 1:51.75.
The Beavers captured their lone top finish of the day in the second event, the 1,000 free, with Sammy Harrison taking it in 10:18.25. Amelia Draney (10:26.42) and Mandy Barnes (10:38.67) finished second and third, respectively, to score for the Broncos.
From there the meet was all Boise State. Cann (1:50.19), Blake Balogh (1:52.70) and Cody Evans (1:54.21) went 1-2-3 in the 200 free to start the Bronco run, followed by another top-three sweep in the 100 back from Kleinsorgen (56.58), Abbey Sorensen (57.52), and Emily Tanasse (1:00.01).
Williams picked up her second win of the day, capturing the 100 breast in 1:05.25, with freshman Mandy Barnes following that with a victory in the 200 fly (2:08.29). Martin picked up her third-straight dual win in the 50 free, this one in 23.63, edging out Aoyama (23.69) while Monica Bottelberghe took third in 24.27. Wicks and Cann then went 1-2 in the 100 free, clocking times of 51.29 and 52.38, respectively, and the freshman trio of Kleinsorgen (2:03.90), Sorensen (2:04.56) and Anne Boodt (2:12.41) swept the top-three spots in the 200 back.
After Williams finished her sweep of the breaststroke events with a win in the 200 breast (2:20.74) with Emily Mathis in second (2:22.62), and Emma Chard took the 500 free in 4:57.85, the Broncos swam the final three events as exhibitions.
