Boise State Press Release
BOISE, Idaho - Boise State swimming closed out its regular season with an emphatic tri-meet victory over Mountain West rival Nevada and defending Western Athletic Conference champion Northern Arizona Saturday at the Boise West YMCA, beating the Wolf Pack, 158.5-89.5, and downing the Lumberjacks, 163.5-84.5. In Colorado Springs, the Broncos divers closed their trip to the AFA Diving Invitational as junior Kacee Olson (third) and senior Karli Kriewall (sixth) posted top-eight finishes on 3-meter.
"It's always fun to beat really good competition, in this case the defending Mountain West champions in Nevada, and the defending WAC champs in Northern Arizona. We raced hard, it was fun and we got some really good times," said Boise State head coach Jeremy Kipp.
At the Y, Junior Emma Chard ruled the middle- and long-distance events, sweeping the 500 free (4:53.78) and 1,000 free (10:05.29), with her win in the latter being by just under 20 seconds. Senior Brittany Aoyama collected four wins, taking her signature event, the 100 fly, along with a sweep of the 50 and 100 frees and being part of the winning 400 free relay. Fellow senior Felicity Cann was also part of the victorious 400 free relay along with picking up her own individual win in the 200 free, while sophomore Abbey Sorensen was also a two-time winner, taking the 200 back and being part of the winning 200 medley relay. Junior Emily Mathis shared a win, tying for first in the 200 breast.
"Emma's stroke has been getting better each week.We're two-and-a-half weeks out from Mountain West Championships, which means you have to be swimming fast," Kipp said. "She's swimming well, and the results we're seeing aren't really a surprise."
The Broncos opened the meet with wins in each of the first three events. The 200 medley relay quartet of Sorensen, Ally Kleinsorgen, Robin Pinger and Katelyn Martin started the meet with a win, clocking a 1:42.67, nearly three seconds ahead of runner-up Nevada. The Broncos went 1-2-3 in the next event, the 1,000 free, as Chard was followed by Amelia Draney (10:25.22) and Mandy Barnes (10:27.36). Cann then took the 200 free in 1:50.11 with sophomore Cody Evans taking third in 1:52.31.
Kleinsorgen and Sorensen finished second and third, respectively, in the 100 back, with Kleinsorgen being edged out of the win by 0.29 of a second by Nevada's Jaeger Turner. Pinger took second in the next event, the 100 breast, while Mandy Barnes followed with a second-place finish in the 200 fly, behind Northern Arizona's Alina Stafffeldt.
Boise State, however, would return to winning ways and capture the remaining eight events of the meet. Aoyama got the Bronco run started, capturing the next two events, the 50 free and 100 free, breaking the pool record in the former with a 22.84. Martin was second in the sprint, clocking a 23.58, while Evans was second in the 100 free at 51.49. Sorensen then won the 200 back in 2:01.76, just out-touching Turner by six-hundredths of a second. Mathis finished the 200 breast in a dead heat with Northern Arizona's Urte at 2:17.46, with Pinger finishing third in 2:22.83.
Chard, Cann and Amelia Draney swept the top three spots in the 500 free, with Chard topping the field in 4:53.78 ahead of Cann (5:00.20) and Draney (5:04.04). Aoyama clocked 54.13 to win the 100 fly, with Martin in second at 56.07, while Chard (2:05.41) and Pinger (2:07.60) went 1-2 in the 200 IM. The foursome of Aoyama, Martin, Evans and Cann then finished the meet with a win in the 400 free relay, clocking 3:24.53.
"Obviously Brittany, Emma, Felicity are going to get some wins, but we've had girls like Robin [Pinger] and Emily Mathis get some wins, and Mandy Barnes finishing second in the 1,000 and winning the 200 fly in the final 15," Kipp noted. "The rest of the girls are contributing and that's what this is going to be about [at conference championships]."
In Colorado, Olson posted a score of 301.50 to take third on 3-meter, while Kriewall took sixth with a score of 268.10. Cassidy Bose took 15th in prelims, scoring 246.35 points, while freshman Taylor Hosein was 26th with a score of 232.90. Jordan Marthens was 46th with a score of 212.85.
With the regular season wrapped up, Boise State turns its attention to the 2017 Mountain West Swimming and Diving Championships from Feb. 15-18 in College Station, Texas.
