Feb. 21, 2012
THIS WEEK
The Washington State swim team will travel to Federal Way, Wash., for the 2012 Pac-12 Women's Swimming Championships...the meet will run from Wednesday, February, 22 - Saturday, February 25 at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center...the competition begins at 6 p.m. Wednesday...Thursday through Saturday preliminary sessions will begin at 11 a.m., with finals sessions to follow at 6 p.m...all tickets will be available at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center on the day of the event only...gates open at 10 a.m. each day.
THE FIELD
The Cougars will go head-to-head with the eight other Pac-12 schools that have a women's swimming team...the field will include women's swimming teams from Arizona, Arizona State, California, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Utah and Washington State...the Cougars are 0-5 against Pac-12 schools this season.
COUGAR CATCH-UP
In its last meet, the Washington State swim team captured seven events in the dual meet against Idaho...despite the Cougars outscoring the Vandals in the swimming events, Washington State fell to Idaho 159.5-134.5...freshman Haley Anderson and junior Shelbi Luchini each won two races...Anderson captured the 1000 free and the 500 free...Luchini touched the wall first in the 200 fly and 200 individual medley... Emma Johansson turned in a victory in the 100 back... Evelina Bieleckaite placed first in the 50 freestyle...the Cougars also won the 200 medley relay.
WSU LAST SEASON
The Cougars went 7-2 last season in dual meets, including a 4-1 record when swimming at home...team finished the season with 23 WSU all-time top-10 performances...Rugile Mileistye set an all-time Cougar best time of 54.64 in the 100 backstroke...Talor Whitaker recorded a Washington State record time of 2:00.42 in the 200 individual medley...a school record of 3:20.96 was set in the 400 freestyle relay.
2011-12 OUTLOOK
The 21-member squad returns 16 letterwinners, including seniors
Melissa Bogert,
Jessie Craig,
Sarah Hicks,
Emma Neely and
Danielle Palumbo...five seniors combined hold 12 spots on the Cougar all-time top-10 lists, including contributing to three relay records...this year the team welcomes five newcomers, four freshmen and one transfer.
COACHING STAFF
Head coach Tom Jager joins the Washington State after spending the last seven years coaching at Idaho...Jager is a six-time NCAA Champion, and a two-time Olympic gold medalist...Jager is joined by assistant coach Adriana Quirke...Quirke was Jager's assistant coach at Idaho for the past three seasons...rounding out the Cougar coaching staff is volunteer assistant coach Jessie Grow and student assistant coach Jennifer Dean.
