The Washington State swimming team improved their overall record to 1-3 after splitting their two meets with USC and Idaho Friday and Saturday. 

The team squeaked out its first win of the season against boarder rival Idaho, 151-143. 

The Cougars dominated the relay events by earning first place finishes in the 200 medley relay and the 400 freestyle. Senior Emma Johansson, sophomore Frederikke Hall, junior Alison Mand, and freshman Haley Rose Love led the team to a first place finish with a time of 1 minute and 45.17 seconds in the 200. Senior Kelly Tannhauser, junior Nicole Proulx, Love, and Johansson swam to a victory in the final event with a winning 400 relay time of 3:28.33.

Cougar freshman Elise Locke and Johansson dominated the individual events. 

Locke swam her way to a first place finish in the distance 1,000 freestyle with a time of 10:28.58 and earned a first place finish in the 500 freestyle. Locke said Head Coach Tom Jager pushed the team to train hard at practice in order to prepare for USC and Idaho. 

“These (meets) were for getting us more into shape and seeing where we are,” Locke said. “We’ve come so far since the beginning of the season when we were completely out of shape, so it was good to see our improvement.” 

Johansson battled her way to two first place finishes in the 100 backstroke and the 100 butterfly. 

“Even though my times are not as fast as I want to go, it’s still really early in the season,” Johansson said.  “It’s still October, we’re training really hard, so basically right now we’re just learning how to swim tired.” 

The Cougars’ Friday meet against powerhouse USC was not the home opener at Gibb Pool the Cougars were hoping for, falling to the Trojans 146-116.   

The Cougars swam hard against one of the strongest swimming teams in the nation, capping an early victory in the 200 medley relay behind Johansson, Hall, Mand, and Love with a time of 1:45.24.  Jager said this team battles to the end and swims hard on the relays.   

“We’ve got a pretty good medley relay in this conference,” Jager said. “These kids believe (and) it’s the same relay that we’ve had since I’ve been here, so it’s a very cohesive group, and I think that relay wants to do some damage in our conference.” 

Johansson once again made waves for the Cougars as the second highest individual scorer of the meet with 18 points, while notching a first place finish in the 100 back with a time of 56.49 and the 100 butterfly with a time of 56.26.  Johansson said as a leader of the team, it’s important to step up and win some early races and events against Pac-12 teams.   

“I think they should be more afraid of us, than we’re afraid of them because we can upset them, but if they win it’s not a huge surprise,” Johansson said. “It’s really exciting going into a meet like this when you can actually beat some people and surprise people.”    

Jager had a similar opinion about the results of the meet against the Trojans.

 “It’s not what we takeaway, we know what we’re about,” he said. “It’s what they’re (USC) going to take back home and say that Washington State team got better.”