WSU swimming lost to Arizona State University 177-83 in Gibb Pool on Saturday. WSU had won the previous two meetings in 2015 and 2014.

The Cougars are now 0-4 in conference play. This meet was WSU’s first home meet of the semester and ASU’s first conference meet on the road.

“We swam well. This is called sports, and we’ve smacked them a few times and they want to smack us back, but I think we’re still in the battle, I think we’re still racing,” Head Coach Tom Jager said. “We’ll be better, we’ll be good, I trust my Cougs.”

WSU won two races in the meet, the first being the 200-meter butterfly in which junior backstroke and butterfly swimmer Jasmine Margetts took first place with a nearly three second lead. The Cougars also took first in the 400-meter freestyle relay,  courtesy of the relay A-team, followed in second place by the WSU relay B-team.

Margetts placed top-five in four races and Jager said he was impressed with her performance.

“Jasmine’s a great swimmer. I’m glad she represents Washington State,” Jager said.

The meet started with a 200-yard medley relay, where the Cougs’ three relay teams, A, B and C, took second, fourth and fifth respectively. Relay team A was only 26 milliseconds behind Arizona’s relay A team.

Jager said his favorite race to watch in the meet was the 200-meter freestyle.

“The 200 free, we might not have won it but that’s a damn good race,” Jager said. “They took it right to em’ and they swam it like they were supposed to … the 200 free was a great race.”

Jager said the performance of freshman freestyle swimmer Alba Forés stood out on a day when the Cougars fell short. Forés took second place in the 200-meter freestyle and the 100-meter freestyle.

Jager was thankful for the support of the fans in Gibb Pool, and said the atmosphere they contribute is valuable to the team.

“It’s always great to swim in front of our fans, they love it,” Jager said. “They get rowdy and it helps our kids so I’m glad they all came here.”

WSU swimming returns to the pool 5 p.m. Jan. 26th in Gibb Pool when the team hosts Oregon State University. This will be the last home meet of the season for the Cougars, before they head off to University of Utah and then the Pac-12 Championships in February.