Junior Blaise Wittenauer-Lee (Portland, Ore.) became the first Seattle University swimmer to win a Western Athletic Conference individual swimming title, highlighting the Redhawks’ participation on the third day of the 2016 WAC Swimming and Diving Championships Friday at the CRWC Natatorium on the campus of the University of Houston.
In the 100 breaststroke, Wittenauer-Lee first earned a personal-best time of 1:02.22 in the morning session, the top preliminary time and an NCAA B-cut mark. In the evening session, she broke the school record as she touched the wall first with a time of 1:01.89, almost 3/10ths of a second ahead of her nearest competitor, to earn Seattle U’s first WAC swimming title since joining the conference in 2012.
“We talked about Blaise swimming her race, and she did exactly that tonight, taking the lead right away and not letting go,” Seattle U head coach Craig Nisgor said. “It was nice that she broke the school record in the process, but I know she is most proud about being Seattle U Swim’s first WAC champion.”
Later in the evening session, Wittenauer-Lee swam the breaststroke leg in the 400 medley relay, joining with Katie Rottman (Phoenix, Ariz.), Jane Liggett (Portland, Ore.), and Paige Treff (Orland, Calif.), to finish sixth in the event in 3:48.12, setting a new school record.
Annika Perry (Reno, Nev.) also scored points in the 100 breaststroke, qualifying for the “B” final with a preliminary time of 1:05.38, and then finishing fifth in her race and 13th overall in the event with a personal-best time of 1:05.14, fourth-best on the Seattle U all-time top times list.
Kate Sabourin (Santa Rose, Calif.) qualified for the “B” final in the 400 individual medley with a time of 4:32.20, and then she finished second in the evening race for a 10th place finish overall with a time of 4:31.97.
In the 100 butterfly, both Kaitlyn Overstreet (Cottonwood Heights, Utah) and Liggett advanced to the “B” final, Overstreet with a personal-best time of 56.64 seconds and Liggett with a mark of 57.22 seconds. Amazingly, the teammates tied for third in the evening race, splitting 11th place overall, both improving from their morning swims with a time of 56.59 seconds.
On the men’s side, Jack Baldoni (Applegate, Calif.) qualified for the “A” final in the 100 butterfly with a personal-best time of 48.46 seconds, and then he finished in eighth place during the evening final in 48.53 seconds.
Tanner Schelling (Boise, Idaho) just missed qualifying for the top final in the 100 breaststroke, finishing ninth in the preliminaries in 54.75 seconds, a new school record and an NCAA B-cut mark. He cut a half-second off that time in the evening, winning the “B” final to finish ninth overall in 54.25 seconds.
Morgan Montemayor (Seattle, Wash.) advanced to the consolation final of the 100 backstroke with a preliminary time of 50.95 seconds, and then he finished third in his evening race for an 11th place finish overall with a personal-best time of 50.26 seconds. Connor Webb (Hood River, Ore.) picked up a point for the Redhawks in the 400 individual medley, improving upon a preliminary time of 4:01.13 with a finals mark of 4:00.16, a personal best by almost two full seconds.
Montemayor led off the 400 medley relay with a 100 backstroke split of 50.82 seconds, joining with Schelling, Baldoni, and Mitchell Crossen (Puyallup, Wash.) for a sixth-place finish in 3:19.25, the second-best time in program history. The Redhawks finished nearly a full second in front of North Dakota in the event.
Also in the men’s 400 individual medley, Grant Gooding (Portland, Ore.) moved into fifth on the Seattle U all-time top times list, posting a time of 4:01.35 in the “C” final. Alec Barnard (Mill Creek, Wash.) earned the second-best time in the “C” final of the 100 butterfly at 49.07 seconds, moving into sixth on the all-time top times list in that event.
Crossen moved into the Seattle U top 10 times list in the 200 freestyle with a preliminary mark of 1:41.91. Ben Nussbaum (Issaquah, Wash.) did the same in the 100 breaststroke after posting a time of 57.27 seconds in the “C” final.
For the women, Emily Gough (San Clemente, Calif.) improved upon her personal best in the 200 freestyle with an evening mark of 1:54.50. In the 100 backstroke, Madi Lydig (Spokane, Wash.) moved into fourth on the Redhawk top times list with a mark of 58.12 seconds in the “C” final, while both Rottman and Overstreet earned personal-best times, Rottman at 58.21 seconds in the preliminaries to move into fifth place and Overstreet at 58.81 seconds, also in the preliminaries, to take over sixth place on the all-time times list.
“This team has shown its unity throughout this meet, whether it is cheering their teammates on during races or being genuinely happy for each other after the fact. We have one more day to make some big things happen,” added Nisgor.
With one day remaining, the Seattle U women have totaled 176.5 points, just 15 points less than Northern Colorado. Northern Arizona holds a dominating lead with 546.5 points, over 200 points ahead of second place New Mexico State. While the Redhawk men currently have 127 points, Air Force has started to pull away at the top of the team standings with 554 points, 67 points in front of Wyoming.
The fourth and final day of the 2016 WAC Swimming and Diving Championships takes place Saturday, Feb. 27, starting with the preliminaries of the 200 backstroke, 100 freestyle, 200 breaststroke, and 200 butterfly at 10:30 a.m. Central time. The finals of those events as well as the 1650 freestyle and 400 freestyle relay will happen later Saturday evening.