Broncos Head North To Face Vandals And Cougars

What’s Happening: The Boise State swimming and diving team is hitting the road again only a week and a half after coming back from Hawaii. This time the Broncos will head north for a pair of dual meets against WAC-rival Idaho on Friday at 1 p.m. (MT) and Washington State on Saturday at 11 a.m. (MT).

The Competition: This will be the third time that the Bronco/Vandal rivalry will hit the water. In both duals, the Vandals have come out on top over the new and growing Bronco program. Last year, the gap significantly declined between the rival programs with the 162.5-131.5 victory. This season the Vandals are 1-2 in dual meets with both losses against WAC opponents. Their only win came against Seattle University in Moscow, Idaho.

“Our team has improved dramatically since the last time we met them,” said head coach Kristin Hill. “This is just one step toward our ultimate goal, which is to compete at our best at the WAC Championships. But, if we can stay within our training plan and come away with a win, it will be a very successful weekend. It’s just like in all of out sports, we would love to come away with a win against our in-state rivals.”

Washington State will be a bit more of a challenge for the Broncos as the Cougars are 4-0 in dual meets this season with a pair of convincing victories over WAC teams, Nevada and Northern Arizona. The dual will take place in Pullman, Wash. where the Broncos are 0-1 all-time. Only the swim team will compete against the Cougars as they do not have a diving team.

“Washington State is definitely in that upper tier of competition for us, which we try to schedule every year,” said Hill. “They are going to be very challenging and they have a good program that we want to compete with. We just want to get in there and race head-to-head, and we are all excited to be able to do that this weekend.”

Meet Formats:
The meet vs. Idaho will be a 16-event meet in the following order.
200 medley relay
1650 free
200 free
100 back
100 breast
200 fly
50 free
3 meter diving
100 free
200 back
200 breast
500 free
100 fly
1 meter diving
200 IM
200 free relay

The meet vs. Washington State will be an 11-event meet in the following order. Diving will not compete in this dual meet.
400 medley relay
1000 free
200 free
50 free
400 IM
200 fly
100 free
200 back
500 free
200 breast
400 free relay

Last Time Out: Only one month after the Broncos finished half point behind the Rainbow Wahine at the Husky Invite, the Boise State swim team dropped a dual meet against the WAC-rival, 161.5 137.5, on Sunday in Honolulu. Despite the overall loss, the Broncos put up a fight by winning eight of the 16 events, including both relays, and setting three new team records.

Both the 200 free relay and 200 medley relay shined for Boise State as both relays brought in a first-place finish and set new team records. The day began with the 200 medley relay swam by Morgan McLain, Emily Irvin, Amber Boucher and Stephanie North. The quartet recorded a time of 1:47.44 for the victory and the record. The 200 free relay team of Boucher, Chelsea Lopus, Denise Green and North produced the same results with a time 1:36.14.

North broke the only individual record in the 200 free with a time of 1:53.08, which also earned her a victory in the event. She also took home a first-place finish in the 100 free. Boucher also brought in a pair of first-place finishes in the 100 fly and 50 free

Katelyn Lofland, Irvin and Lopus each earned victories in their individual events to round out the first-place finishes for the Broncos. Lofland touched first in the 1000 free as did Irvin in the 100 breast and Lopus in the 200 IM.

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