Swim grabs first win under Leach in San Diego

WSU faced three teams over weekend to start off its 2018-19 season

Then-senior+Rachel+Thompson+races+during+the+women%E2%80%99s+500-yard+freestyle+race+Oct.+14+at+the+Gibb+Pool.

RYAN PUGH | DAILY EVERGREEN FILE

Then-senior Rachel Thompson races during the women’s 500-yard freestyle race Oct. 14 at the Gibb Pool.

SIGMUND SEROKA, Evergreen reporter
September 24, 2018

The WSU swim squad trav­eled to San Diego to take on San Diego State University and the University of Nevada, Reno, in a dual swim meet Friday. The fol­lowing day WSU would take on the University of San Diego.

The dual meet on Friday against San Diego State and Nevada ended in a third-place fin­ish for the Cougars. They collected 10 top-three finishes and quite a few impressive results from the underclassmen.

Freshmen Keiana Fountaine, Payton Bokowy and Emily Barrier along with sophomore Chloe Larson earned a first-place fin­ish in the 400-yard free relay and second place in the 200-yard free relay. The team clocked in at 3:34.32 on the 400-yard free relay and 1:38.09 on the 200-yard free relay.

Head Coach Matt Leach was very impressed with the over­all performance of his team and couldn’t be happier with the out­come of the dual meet.

“We had highlights on every relay with people making changes to techniques that we’re working on and we did a great job racing,” Leach said. “As a program we did a great job. I’m looking forward to continue and grow.”

Multiple relay squads took home second-place finishes and had impressive times for the first meets of the year. Senior Jasmine Margetts contributed to many of these second-place finishes even beating out some of her team­mates in different relays.

WSU took on San Diego and grabbed its first win of the season Saturday. The Cougars racked up nine first-place finishes en route to a narrow 129-122 victory over San Diego. The meet was close but the Cougars stepped up when they needed to most.

Some of the young members of the team were able to claim first-place finishes in their individual events. Sophomores Mackenzie Duarte and Taylor McCoy earned a first place finish in two of their events while Fountaine earned two first-place finishes.

It wasn’t just the young new­comers to take home first-place finishes against San Diego. Margetts took first in the 1000- yard free with a time of 10:33.05 while junior Ryan Falk placed first in the 500-yard free with a time of 5:08.41.

Leach was really impressed with his team, especially in the way they were able to compete as a unit.

“We had competed with great team chemistry today,” Leach said. “It was great to see that pro­cess come through and for the overall result to be a win.”