Men’s Week in Review

Golf
The Seattle University Men’s Golf team headed to California for two separate tournaments over the course of five days. The Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate tournament took place in Palm Desert, with entries for the Redhawks consisting of First-year Will Koepke, Sophomores Federico Gutierrez, Jack Rahon, Nathan Cogswell and Senior Greg Gionfriddo.

At the end of the first tournament round, Rahon had the leading finish in a tie for 21st out of 119 total golfers.

As for the second round of the tournament, the Redhawks took home the first-place trophy for a top five team score. The Redhawks also came out as the best team with a scoring average on Par 4s at 4.27.

Swimming
The swim team was in Houston, Texas for the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Championships. The meet took place over the course of three days and many Redhawks achieved new personal bests.

On day one, the Redhawks started with the 200-yard medley relay, which qualified for next month’s College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) National Invitational Championships.

Breaking their personal best time by about two seconds in a time of 1:30.57, Senior Ryan Shaw, Junior Jack Neton, Senior Greg Raper and Sophomore Tyler Goodspeed finished fifth all-time for Seattle University. The relay finished in a time of 3:00.41.

On day two, the meet was cut slightly short because of a major water break in the city, causing the campus where the WAC Championship was hosted to shut down.

As a result, the preliminary races that occurred on Thursday became finals. Highlights from the day included a lifetime personal record from Sophomore Juan Varela in the 500-freestyle, where he finished in a time of 15:55.07.

On day three, the Redhawks had a solid finish with several more season-bests from the team in individual events. As a team, the Redhawks finished seventh overall with 139.5 points.

Track
The Redhawks were in Nampa, Idaho for the WAC Championships over the course of two days, concluding their 2020 indoor season.

Sophomore Lucas Milne made his debut in the heptathlon and took on a number of events that ultimately earned him a seventh-place finish.

Distance runners Junior Nathan Pixler and Sophomore Ansel Pendley-Griffin also made finals in their events of the 800-meter and mile run respectively. Pixler finished fourth overall, while Pendley-Griffin crossed the line in a close field to finish seventh.

The Redhawks have a short break before they are set to begin their outdoor season on March 21.

Basketball
The men’s basketball team faced current WAC leader New Mexico State University, where they lost a close game 72-64.

Redshirt Junior Terrell Brown scored in the double-digits, but it was not enough to hold off the Aggies. The opposing team held the lead for the entirety of the game.

The Redhawks traveled to Texas to face WAC rival University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV). Once again the game was close from the start, but again UTRGV pulled away to take the win in a final score of 79-72. Brown again had a notable performance, scoring back-to-back buckets during the final few minutes.

Tennis
The men’s tennis team had a successful week, with Junior Colton Weeldreyer leading the Redhawks to victory after winning his singles match.

Senior Alex Chan and First-year Lars Schmassmann also won singles matches, which will propel the team to their first home meet of the 2020 season set to take place March 8 at the Amy Yee Tennis Center.

Baseball
The Seattle U Baseball team fell short against Pacific University, but a standout performance from Junior Jarrod Billig earned him WAC Pitcher of the Week.

The left-hander kept Pacific scoreless and became the first Redhawk to earn recognition this season.

The Redhawks look to bounce back next week as they take on Boise State on March 6 beginning at 5 p.m.

Women’s Week in Review

Basketball
Basketball played their final home game of the season at the Redhawk Center on Feb. 29. The Redhawks faced off against California Baptist University (CBU) and lost by 11 points on Senior day, ending the game with 79 points to CBU’s 90.

However, Senior Joanna Alves found success during her final home game as she set the new program scoring record. Sophomore Courtney Murphy set the program record with 33 points in 2019, and Alves passed it with 34 points. Basketball will play at Chicago State on March 5 as a treat as they wrap their regular season play.

Swimming
After a water main break in Houston, Texas, the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) championship meet modified its preliminary and final rounds.

The meet was held at the University of Houston, whose campus was closed due to a water main break.

For First-year Danika Himes, this meant a seventh place finish in a career best time of 2:05.69 in the 200-yard individual medley during finals, which was originally set to act as a preliminary round. First-year Tessa Oliver also competed in the 200 IM and finished in a time of 2:08.26.

On day two, Himes swam the 200-breaststroke and had a career best of 2:17.89 and a sixth place finish. Over the weekend, Himes earned three all-conference awards. First-year Michaela Day competed in the 1650-yard freestyle and not only set a personal best by a minute at a time of 17:30.43, but also recorded the fourth-best performance in Seattle U history.

Senior Jayna Van-Stone also shaved time off of her record in the 200 backstroke, swimming to a finish of 2:04.77. Swim took eighth place overall at the WAC championships.

Tennis
In Denver, Colorado, tennis faced off against No. 34 in the nation Denver University. First-year Jade Lancaster was the closest to earning a victory against Denver, with set scores of 4-6 and 2-6. Denver beat Seattle U 7-0.

Junior Hannah Gianan and Lancaster came together in doubles play, but fell 2-6 while the Sophomore duo of Martina Asciuto and Hannah Grossman ended with the same result. On Saturday, the Redhawks lost to both Air Force and Weber State University with scores of 0-5 and 0-4, respectively.

Tennis will have their senior day match against Bellevue College at the Amy Yee Tennis Center on March 8.

Track
Track and field flamed on to Nampa, Idaho for the WAC Championship meet over the weekend. On day one, Senior Michelle Newblom broke her own school record for the third time during the indoor season with a time of 8.74 in the 60 meter hurdles.

The distance medley relay team of First-years Grace Much and Delaney Griffin and Sophomores Regie Grady and Marie-Therese Chahrouri placed third in 12:19.11. Day two saw Senior Siobhan Rubio place fourth place in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:17.43 and First-year Maya McCabe finishing in seventh place.

Sophomore Rachel Van-Liew also took seventh place in the high jump. The second day ended on a high as the 4×400 relay broke the school record in a time of 3:52.62. The team consisted of McCabe, Grady, Rubio and Newblom.

Track looks to start their outdoor season on March 21.

Softball
In Honolulu, Hawaii, softball began play in the Mahilihini Kipa Aloha Tournament on Friday. In the first game, they played against Nevada, losing 3-2. WAC Pitcher of the Week, Junior Shi Smith, struck out seven of Nevada’s batters. In their second game, the Redhawks had the same fate and lost by one point to Oregon State University (OSU), 1-0.

Redshirt Junior Carley Nance pitched the game and only allowed three hits. However, the fight against OSU continued on Saturday as they played against each other again—this time with a different outcome. The Redhawks came out on top with a victory of 6-1.

In game two on Saturday, the team played against Hawaii and won 4-3. First-year Stefanie Madrigal started as the Redhawks pitcher and earned six strikeouts in four innings.

The team looks ahead to March 6, where they will face Pac-12 school the University of Oregon in Eugene.