The Seattle University swim teams concluded its most successful Western Athletic Conference Swimming and Diving Championships participation with more fast swims Saturday as the 2015 competition concluded at the Palo Alto College Natatorium.
The Seattle U women capped off the meet by setting their fifth relay school record in five attempts, as the quartet of Blaise Wittenauer-Lee (Portland, Ore.), Rachael Rodriguez (Round Rock, Texas), Sidney Pinger (Tualatin, Ore.), and Kristin Hoffman (Mercer Island, Wash.) combined for a time of 3:27.48, over two seconds faster than the previous record set at last year’s conference championships.
Earlier in the evening session, Bethany Gehrke (Lynnwood, Wash.) lowered her own school records in both the 1000 freestyle and 1650 freestyle, finishing the first 1000 yards of her 1650 freestyle swim in 10:21.86, almost six seconds faster than her previous best, before completing the event in eighth place in 17:10.75, over three seconds quicker than the mark she posted at last year’s WAC meet. Also in the women’s 1650 freestyle, Allie McGavock (Glen Ellyn, Ill.) finished in 18th place in 17:48.03, and Emma Foster (Clancy, Mont.) finished in 20th place in 17:50.79.
In the men’s 200 backstroke, Bart Wanot (Federal Way, Wash.) set a new school record and posted a “B” cut with a preliminary time of 1:46.01 before finishing eighth in the “A” final in 1:48.66. Also in the men’s 200 backstroke, Lee Van Farowe (Edmonds, Wash.) improved from a 1:52.48 to a 1:52.28, Morgan Montemayor (Seattle, Wash.) improved from a 1:55.60 to a 1:52.32, and Sam Donohue (Portland, Ore.) also cut his time from 1:54.59 to 1:53.73.
Wittenauer-Lee also earned a “B” cut in the 200 breaststroke, first swimming 2:15.56 in the preliminaries before earning her second individual medal of the meet with a third place finish in the final in 2:15.72. Annika Perry (Reno, Nev.) posted a preliminary time of 2:24.73 before earning a mark of 2:25.30 in the “B” final, while Caroline Van Maren (Bellevue, Wash.) posted swims of 2:25.89 in the preliminaries and 2:27.98 in the final.
Madi Lydig (Spokane, Wash.) picked up Second Team All-WAC honors after finishing sixth in the 200 backstroke final in 2:03.15, coming off a preliminary swim of 2:02.74. Carlee Bock (Bellingham, Wash.) improved from 2:07.79 in the morning to 2:07.47 in the evening, and Maddie Dickman (Sacramento, Calif.) went from 2:10.68 in the preliminaries to 2:12.74 in the final.
Hoffman reached another “A” final thanks to a preliminary time of 51.72 seconds in the 100 freestyle, and then she finished eighth in the evening session in 52.14 seconds. Rodriguez improved from a preliminary time of 52.60 seconds to an evening mark of 52.48 seconds, while Pinger posted a preliminary time of 52.59 seconds and a finals time of 52.87 seconds. Paige Treff (Orland, Calif.) finished her 100 freestyle preliminary in 53.26 seconds, while Alexis Martinez (Granite Bay, Calif.) posted a time of 54.02 seconds and Melissa Randolf (Everett, Wash.) finished in 54.93 seconds.
Jack Baldoni (Applegate, Calif.) moved into second place on the Seattle U top times list for the 200 butterfly after finishing eighth in 1:49.24, an improvement from his preliminary mark of 1:49.52. Elsewhere in the men’s 200 butterfly, Alec Barnard (Everett, Wash.) improved from a 1:50.93 in the morning to a 1:49.31 in the evening, while Kyle Moline (Mercer Island, Wash.) posted times of 1:50.13 in the preliminaries and 1:50.32 in the “B” final. Damon Perry (Sammamish, Wash.) went from a 1:53.71 in the morning to an evening time of 1:55.49.
Jane Liggett (Portland, Ore.) won the “B” final of the 200 butterfly in 2:06.17 after submitting a preliminary time of 2:07.45. Kaitlyn Overstreet (Cottonwood Heights, Utah) followed up a morning mark of 2:08.55 with an evening time of 2:08.76, while Kate Sabourin (Santa Rosa, Calif.) went from a morning time of 2:10.69 to a finals time of 2:11.33.
For the men, Nick Connors (Richland, Wash.) led the Redhawks in the 1650 freestyle with a ninth place finish of 15:52.17, followed by Chris Weinert (Gresham, Ore.) in 14th place in 16:04.79 and Perry in 21st place in 16:53.59. In the men’s 100 freestyle, Tanner Schelling (Boise, Idaho) posted times of 46.21 seconds in the morning and 46.67 seconds in the evening, while John Fulmer (Kent, Wash.) finished his preliminary in 47.74 seconds, ahead of Julian Morales’s (Phoenix, Ariz.) preliminary time of 47.86 seconds.
Connor Webb (Hood River, Ore.) won the “C” final in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:04.52 after posting a preliminary time of 2:05.00, while Gabe Wheeler (Round Rock, Texas) finished his original preliminary in 2:03.77, posted a swim-off time of 2:03.21, and then finished in the evening at 2:09.43.
Wanot, Moline, Schelling, and Baldoni combined for a time of 3:05.79 in the men’s 400 freestyle relay. The Redhawk men finished in seventh place with 191 points, while the women finished in eighth place with 270.5 points. The Northern Arizona women cruised to the conference title, while UNLV earned a 10-point win over Air Force, 715.5 to 705.5.
The Seattle University swim teams will look to continue their improvement in the 2015-16 season.