Boise State Press Release
WESTWOOD, Calif. - Boise State swimming and diving finished up its training trip to Southern California with Friday's tri-meet at UCLA, beating Kansas, 181-113, and narrowly falling to UCLA, 164-130.
The Broncos captured four of the 14 swimming events, led by two victories apiece from senior Brittany Aoyama and junior Emma Chard. Aoyama captured the 50 free along with her signature event, the 100 fly, and Chard swept the 200 and 500 frees. Boise State did earn the maximum points in the meet-closing event, the 400 free relay, due to UCLA exhibitioning its teams, although the Bronco A team of Aoyama, Chard, Katelyn Martin and Felicity Cann finished second to the UCLA A quartet by just 0.27 of a second, and the Bronco B team of Cody Evans, Emmie Jennings, Abbey Sorensen and Ally Kleinsorgen took third in 3:29.19 to edge UCLA's B team by 0.40 of a second.
"The team was truly a mixed bag today. We had some really good in-season times while it also looked like we had a few victims to a long training camp, but we're happy with the performance," said Boise State head coach Jeremy Kipp. "We would have liked to win more races but both UCLA and Kansas offered some excellent competition."
The Bronco divers had a strong showing, especially on 1-meter where Boise State captured places 2-5. Senior Karli Kriewall led the way there with a zone-qualifying score of 290.55, followed in order by junior Kacee Olson (zone-qualifying 282.95), sophomore Cassidy Bose (255.10) and freshman Taylor Hosein (240.25). Senior Jordan Marthens took eighth with a score of 226.20. UCLA's Ciara Monahan captured the event with a score of 306.45. On 3-meter, Bose was the top Bronco, taking third with a score of 266.05 with Kriewall in fifth at 252.05, Olson in sixth at 242.80 and Hosein in seventh at 236.65.
Chard picked up the first win of the day for the Broncos as she and Cann went 1-2 in the 200 free in the third event. Chard touched the pad in 1:50.29 with Cann right behind her at 1:51.04. In the seventh event, the 50 free, Aoyama got on the board with a win as her time of 23.03 edged UCLA's Linnea Mack by 0.11 of a second, while Martin took third in 23.40.
"Brittany continues to have an excellent senior year," Kipp said. "I was surprised, to be honest, because she had worked really hard over the camp, but she just keeps getting faster. It's been really fun to watch her take it to a new level."
After the 3-meter diving competition, Aoyama and Mack engaged in another duel, this time in the 100 free. Mack would get the edge this time, clocking a 49.77, just 0.12 of a second ahead of Aoyama. The Broncos would get their final two victories in back-to-back events later in the meet, as Chard and Aoyama took the 500 free and 100 fly consecutively. Chard and Cann once again went 1-2 for the Broncos, with Chard's winning time of 4:53.11 over three seconds ahead of Cann's 4:56.88 and nearly four seconds ahead of UCLA's Michaela Merlihan in third. Aoyama followed in the next event, the 100 fly, by clocking a 53.39 to beat UCLA's pair of Amy Okada and Katie Grover by 2.30 seconds and 2.88 seconds, respectively.
"Emma sweeping a very good field in both freestyle events was good. She looked like she raced well and was really feeling the stroke," Kipp said. "Again, coming off of a camp with her we were not sure where she would be but she rose to the challenge."
Boise State turned in other top-three finishes in various events, beginning with the meet opener, the 200 medley relay, in which the foursome of Ally Kleinsorgen, Robin Pinger, Katelyn Martin and Cody Evans clocked a 1:44.38 to finish second behind UCLA's winning time of 1:42.12. Sorensen turned in a pair of top-three finishes in each of the backstroke events, taking second in the 200 (2:01.62) and third in the 100 (56.24), while Kleinsorgen took fourth in the 100 with a time of 56.34. Junior Emily Mathis was third in the 200 breast (2:20.93) while freshman Robin Pinger finished fourth in both breaststroke events.
Kansas Press Release
LOS ANGELES – Madison Straight brought in the new year by touching first in the 400-yard individual medley at Spieker Aquatics Center in Los Angeles on Friday afternoon. The Kansas junior edged fellow Jayhawk Libby Walker by 11-hundredths of a second to take the win, and Haley Downey gave the Jayhawks the top-three times in the event by finishing seconds behind Straight and Walker.
In the double-dual hosted by No. 20 UCLA, the Jayhawks fell to the Bruins 202-92, and were edged out by No. 29 Boise State, 191-131.
Straight's victory marks the second this season in the 400 IM for the Fort Worth, Texas native. Finishing in 4:29.23, the junior posted her second-fastest time of the season in the event. Her time of 4:22.43 at the Kansas Classic in November stands as her fastest time this season.
"With the 400 IM being my last race of the day, I really focused on finishing the meet strong," Straight said. "I used Coach Campbell's advice on building each 100 of each stroke and then giving it all I had in the freestyle. I saw Libby down a few lanes right with me so it motivated me to really race until the end."
Walker's second place finish added to a solid day for the Columbia, Missouri native, after picking up third place finishes in the 1,000-yard freestyle and 200-yard butterfly earlier in the afternoon. The sophomore just missed a second-place time in the 1,000 free, touching at 10:12.54, four-hundredths of a second behind UCLA's Sandra Soe.
"Haley and Katy (Schlies) did very well and gave it their all in the next heat as well," Straight added. "Our IMers have worked very hard this year in each and every practice, and I think that showed a little bit today. I'm excited to see what we can do at conference."
Kansas freshman Jenny Nusbaum picked up a top-three finish in the 200-yard freestyle, finishing 1.2 seconds off the leader at 1:51.49, behind Emma Chard (1:50.29) and Felicity Cann (1:51.04) from Boise State.
The Jayhawks' day ended with third and fourth place finishes in the 400-yard freestyle relay. Haley Bishop paced the Kansas A team with a 52.70 split, followed by a 52.79 split from Carly Straight. Nusbaum completed the third leg in 52.63, before Yulduz Kuchkarova brought it home with a 52.17 split for a team time of 3:30.29. The B team of Breonna Barker, Leah Pfitzer, Hannah Driscoll and Taylor Sieperda finished in 3:35.22.
In diving action, Nadia Khechfe finished seventh on the one-meter board and Amanda Maser took eighth on the three-meter board.
"It was an extremely fast meet from the start," head coach Clark Campbell said. "We ended the day very strong, and it will give us some momentum going into the USD shootout tomorrow"
The Jayhawks have little time to recover, as they travel over 100 miles down the coast of California to San Diego for the University of San Diego shootout on Saturday. The meet is slated to begin at Noon CT, and will feature Colorado State, North Texas and the host Toreros.
