The Seattle University women took the spotlight Thursday, setting four school records during the second day of the 2016 Western Athletic Conference Swimming and Diving Championships, held at the CRWC Natatorium on the campus of the University of Houston.
Sophomore Madi Lydig (Spokane, Wash.) started the day by qualifying for the “A” final in the 500 freestyle with a personal-best time of 4:59.27 in the preliminaries. In the evening session, she smashed that personal-best time as well as the five-year-old school record, finishing fifth for Second Team All-WAC honors with a time of 4:55.88.
Blaise Wittenauer-Lee (Portland, Ore.) lowered her own school record in the 200 individual medley twice, first qualifying for the “A” final with a preliminary time of 2:03.70. Then, she shaved 1.33 seconds off that mark, finishing fourth in the evening final with a time of 2:02.37, picking up Second Team All-WAC recognition in the process.
After coming within 1/100th of a second of the 50 freestyle school record at last year’s WAC Championships, Paige Treff (Orland, Calif.) broke the six-year-old mark by 35/100ths of a second in the morning preliminaries with a time of 23.49 seconds, qualifying for the “B” final. In the evening, Treff finished in sixth place, 14th overall, with a mark of 23.85 seconds.
In the final race of the evening session, Wittenauer-Lee posted the third-fastest 50 freestyle time in Redhawk history, leading off the 200 freestyle relay with a split of 24.03 seconds, followed by Treff at 23.42 seconds, Kelly Hartman (East Wenatchee, Wash.) at 23.85 seconds, and Stephanie Bayless (Spokane, Wash.) at 24.06 seconds, combining for a sixth-place finish with a school-record time of 1:35.36.
Annika Perry (Reno, Nev.) also scored points for the Redhawks in the 200 individual medley, finishing in a tie for sixth place in the “B” final and tied for 14th place overall with a time of 2:06.89, almost a full second faster than her preliminary time of 2:07.83.
In the “C” final of the 500 freestyle, Emma Foster (Clancy, Mont.) led the Redhawks with a time of 5:06.62 following a preliminary time of 5:06.38. After posting a preliminary time of 5:12.04, Sidney Pinger (Tualatin, Ore.) swam over three seconds quicker in the evening session with a time of 5:08.37, and Emily Gough (San Clemente, Calif.) was consistent throughout the day, posting times of 5:08.25 in the morning, 10th on the Seattle U top times list, and 5:08.72 in the evening. Jane Liggett (Portland, Ore.) lowered her personal-best time in the 500 freestyle, ninth-best on the Redhawk top times list, at 5:07.76 in the preliminaries.
On the men’s side, three Redhawks reached the bonus final in the 500 freestyle, led by senior Nick Connors (Richland, Wash.), who posted times of 4:37.28 in the preliminaries and 4:38.28 in the final. Austin Barnard (Mill Creek, Wash.) earned marks of 4:39.66 in the morning and 4:40.00 in the evening, and Chris Weinert (Gresham, Ore.) improved from a preliminary time of 4:43.85 to an evening mark of 4:42.78.
Tanner Schelling (Boise, Idaho) qualified for the “C” final in the 50 freestyle with a preliminary time of 20.54 seconds, followed by an evening mark of 20.57 seconds. Schelling also swam the second leg of the 200 freestyle relay, joining with Matt Morris (Lufkin, Texas), Jack Baldoni (Applegate, Calif.), and Alec Barnard (Mill Creek, Wash.) for a time of 1:22.57, sixth-fastest in program history.
“The women had an incredible day today, and the men had some good swims as well. Overall, we are getting stronger as this meet goes on,” Seattle U head coach Craig Nisgor said. “There are still some things we are working on to have even better results, but we are fighting for every point, and I expect more over the final two days.”
The Redhawk women have collected 108.5 points after the first two days, only 17.5 points behind Grand Canyon. The Seattle U men finished the second day of the meet with 74 total points. With 282 points, Air Force holds a small lead over Grand Canyon, currently with 276 points.
The third day of the WAC Swimming and Diving Championships commence at 10:30 a.m. Central time Friday, Feb. 26, with the preliminaries for the 400 individual medley, 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle, 100 breaststroke, and 100 backstroke. The finals of those events as well as the 400 medley relay will start at 6 p.m. local time (4 p.m. Pacific time) and will be shown on the WAC Digital Network (www.wacsports.com/live).