Ahead of their upcoming meet on Friday against Idaho, the WSU swim team is a perfect 6-0 on the year, navigating a difficult schedule to stay undefeated.
In their latest meet on Jan. 17, they took down Utah Tech by a score of 169-35.
During the meet, the Cougs 400-medley relay set a pool record of 3:37.68. The team consists of junior Anna Rauchholz, junior Emily Lundgren, junior Dori Hathazi and senior Emma Wright.
Senior Angela Di Palo won the 200-meter freestyle and senior Selena Duran Ortiz won her first career event, winning the 100-meter individual medley.
“We are working every detail every week in every practice,” said Ortiz after the match.
She said she was not expecting to win, but was all smiles after the match.
“It’s kind of crazy ’cause I’m not an IM’er,” she said.
Ortiz usually swims the backstroke but won the IM in her first time competing in the event.
“The seniors, it’s good to see them step up and get those wins,” said assistant coach Tylor Mathieu.
Overall, the team won all eleven events against Utah Tech and set three Gibb Pool records. Mathieu said the team had been having great practices the weekend prior and topped a few records during the practice, so they were happy to officially set the new marks in the match.
“It’s pretty cool to see it come together, we kinda knew some would be taken down tonight,” Mathieu said.
They next take on a Vandals squad that also recently beat Utah Tech, by a score of 186-51.
From there, the Cougs will start preparing for the Mountain West championships, which begin on Feb. 19.
“As long as we continue to focus on us as a team, those results are gonna speak for themselves,” said head coach Russell Whitaker earlier this year.
Mathieu said the team would watch film to prepare for the meet against the Vandals, but that they were already feeling good about where they are at.
“Just cleaning up the details,” Mathieu said. “Have them look through their splits, and where we need to be better, and just apply that to training.”
Ortiz, meanwhile, wanted her team to focus on having fun as the season comes to a close.
“Honestly, just have fun. All the work is done,” Ortiz said. “Seeing teammates success, individually…it’s all come together at the end of the season.”