The WSU swim team is sending two to the NCAA Championships but before that, 12 Cougar swimmers will take on the CSCAA National Invitational Championships.

The Cougars also sent 12 swimmers to this event last year. There are nine returning members of the group that went last year including three who placed in at least one event.

The swimmers who placed last year are now sophomore Noelle Harvey and current juniors Josie Liebzeit and Alexandra Vartiainen. Sophomore Selena Duran was one of the 12 who went last year and said this year she and her class is taking the event more seriously.

“Last year the freshmen in my class felt like Pac-12’s are the important thing and CSCAA’s were a gift and now we think Pac-12’s are the goal for the season and after CSCAA’s are a chance to kill it twice,” Duran said.

The team began to peak at the Pac-12 Championships but Duran said the team definitely has more in the tank.

“I think we can do so much better. Every time we get in the pool we do better and better and better. Pac-12’s we started good but we have better and it’s not how you start it’s how you end,” Duran said.

The meet this week involves both men and women allowing for more breaks in between events for the swimmers to rest. The entire meet itself is a different flow and there’s less anxiety going in, said head coach Matt Leach.

“Coming off of (the Pac-12 Championships) there’s not that same level of stress or emphasis on ‘this is our meet it’s time to go,’ this is more of a ‘let’s go with our best 12, let’s see what we can do and see if we can continue to move up from what we did last year,” Leach said.

The expectation for the team is still that the team goes in hungry and ready to go, the same as always, but there is also an expectation of even more success, Leach said.

“I think we can break some records that are still up on the board from this year that we were close to,” Leach said. “I think we can see even faster swims.”

The event provides the 12 participating Cougs with a chance to dive into live action one last time before entering into the offseason. 

The event runs all day Thursday-Saturday in the Beacon Health Aquatic Center in Elkhart, Indiana.