In their first Pac-12 meet of the season, the Arizona Wildcat women won 12 of the 14 events to take a commanding 172-89 win over the Washington State Cougars and took down two pool records in the process. The Cougars did pick up two impressive wins against the Wildcats in a surge towards the end of the meet.
The Wildcats started off the meet with a win with the same 200 Medley Relay team they used to beat the Wisconsin badgers (1:42.85), getting within almost three-tenths of a second off the Gibb Pool Record. Three of the four relay swimmers (Bonnie Brandon, Emma Schoettmer and Taylor Schick) would go on to win at least one individual event.
Junior Wildcat Bonnie Brandon came off of the relay win to take first in the 200 Free in a new Gibb Pool Record (1:48.90). Later in the meet, she powered to yet another Gibb Pool Record in the 500 Free (4:50.14), 14 seconds ahead of teammate Claire Lockridge (5:04.58). Lockridge was coming off of a previous win in the 1000 Free (10:18.52).
Freshman Wildcat Cameron McHugh out-touched Washington State’s Loree Olson in the 100 Back by just one one-hundredth of a second. McHugh took another win in the 200 Back at 2:00.74, almost two seconds ahead of 100 Back runner-up Loree Olson.
Pac-12 Second-Team All-Academic member Taylor Schick took back-to-back wins in the 50 Free (23.20) and 100 Free (50.72), while breaststroker Emma Schoettmer also stacked up double wins in the 100 Breast (1:03.48) and 200 Breast (2:16.87), less than one-tenth of a second ahead of Cougar Presley Wetterstrom (2:16.96).
Even though the Washington State Cougars did not take home as many wins as the Wildcats, their two firsts secured towards the end of the meet were impressive indicators of their sprint and IM programs.
“The Cougs swam tough,” WSU Head Coach Tom Jager said in a statement to WSU Athletics. “We kept on pushing and kept on going. Arizona is one of the best teams in the country– in the world. When we swim these guys, we have to take our lumps, but keep on fighting. That’s really the hallmark of this team.”
Freshman Cougar Anna Brolin out-touched Arizona’s Katja Hajdinjak in 55.71, the fastest time of her collegiate career and the ninth fastest in Cougar history. Junior Loree Olson won the 200 IM at 2:06.07, over two seconds ahead of Wildcat Freshman Alexandra Martelle.
Read the full meet results here.
