WSU swimming to compete in Ohio State Invitational

The WSU women’s swimming team will begin the three day long Ohio State Invitational in Columbus, Ohio today.

Coming off of a back-to-back winning streak, the Cougs look to closeout 2016 with one more victory.

“I think we feel really confident,” sophomore Ciera Kelly said. “We’re not worried at all. It’s always a fun meet. It’s the best meet of the year.”

The team was able to taper for a few weeks, Volunteer Assistant Coach Michelle Berry said, which is when the intensity goes down but the focus goes up.

Kelly says that this routine consists of getting your body built up and your muscles ready. That way when a swimmer goes into a swim meet, their body isn’t sore.

This will be their first meet that will be three days long. Head Coach Tom Jager said in an interview with WSU Athletic Communications that even though they value swimming as a team, this invitational will be more focused on the individual.

“When we go down to the invites and stuff like that, we get to have a little bit more focus on ourselves,” Jager said via WSU Athletic Communications. “The athletes can set up their own individual races better instead of swimming three races in a half in one meet. They get to go over three races over three days. It really makes them sharper and makes them focus on their best racing.”

Since this race is going to be in Ohio, the Cougs might face some difficulty adjusting to the time change.

“Time change is a little difficult,” Kelly said. “We’re going to be three hours ahead, but we’re always so tired after a long day of swimming so we all just kind of go to bed anyways.”

During their first two swim meets on the road, they lost against Stanford University 99-149 and against Cal 97-155.

“We got beat in some close races and this team came back and they worked on it,” Jager said in an interview with WSU Athletic Communication regarding the losses against Stanford and Cal. “They got better and that builds their confidence. So we swim better when we do things right.”

That hard work and practice resulted in wins against UCLA, 143-119 and against Northern Arizona University, 129-70.

Jager said in an interview with WSU Athletic Communication that he admires how he asks his team to finish what they started and they do.

The WSU women’s swimming team will have their next meet Jan. 20th against Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon.