The Redhawks posted numerous personal and school bests at the 2016 Swimming and Diving Championships, making it a notable and successful meet for the school. Junior Blaise Wittenauer-Lee led the way, smashing the previous school 200 backstroke record by seconds and beating her nearest competitor by over a second.
Wittenauer-Lee would go on to cap the final night of the competition by leading off the 400 freestyle relay with a 100 free split of 52.02 seconds, third best among the top Seattle U times. Stephanie Bayless, Sidney Pinger Paige Treff and Wittenauer-Lee finished the relay posting a 3:30.38 final time, the fourth-best in program history.
Wittenauer-Lee also posted a school-record leadoff 200 freestyle split of 1:50.24, helping Madi Lydig, Pinger, Emily Gough and herself post a total time of 7:32.15, second-best on the Seattle U top times list.
The men’s team also posted the best 200 medley relay time in school history as Morgan Montemayor, Tanner Schelling, Jack Baldoni and Matt Morris completed the relay with a time of 1:29.78. This is the first time any Seattle U 200 medley relay team has ever posted a mark under 1:30, a monumental feat.
Nick Connors, Montemayor, Will Wertz and Mitchell Crossen grabbed sixth place in the 800 freestyle relay with a time of 6:47.11, the fifth best such time in program history.
Lydig also smashed a school record in the 500 freestyle, posting a 4:55.88 and capturing fifth place and Second Team All WAC honors. This helped her complete a successful meet and an even more successful day, given that she started the day by qualifying for the “A” final in the 500 freestyle with a personal-best time of 4:59.27 in the preliminaries before lowering that time later in the evening, as aforementioned.
“This was a great meet overall, with numerous entries into our top 10 times lists, several personal bests and another WAC title tonight,” said head coach, Craig Nisgor. “With many of our top performers coming back next year, the improvement can only continue.”
The women’s team finished the event with 244.5 total points, while the men earned 183 points. Northern Arizona won the women’s WAC team title with 807.5 total points and the U.S. Air Force Academy took the men’s WAC team title after collecting 771 total points. The Seattle U men and women finished seventh and eighth respectively.
Will may be reached at [email protected]
