Jacks Control Home Waters

John Green

The SDSU women’s swim team hosted a dual meet Jan. 14 in the HPER Pool, claiming solid victories over the University of Northern Iowa and the University of Nebraska-Omaha. The Jackrabbits defeated UNO, 155-124 and UNI, 192-103.

The Jacks were able to kick things off with a first place finish in the 400-yard medley relay, a full five seconds ahead of the second place team from UNI. The Jackrabbits held the momentum, picking up first place finishes in the 200-yard freestyle, and the 100-yard backstroke.

Freshman Samantha Fossum was able to win the 1,000-yard freestyle in dramatic fashion, edging out UNI’s Chelsea Hartman by a hundredth of a second. The race had been back and forth coming into the final laps, and at the final turn, Fossum was dealing with goggle issues.

“I was really concerned about my goggles going into the last turn,” Fossum said. “They were starting to come undone and I wasn’t sure if I would be able to see for the last push to the wall.”

The UNO Mavericks went on to sweep the next four events, claiming first place finishes in the 100-yard breaststroke, 200-yard butterfly, and both the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle.

The Jacks bounced back and took first in the 200-yard backstroke, with senior Jessica Ferley swimming a time of 2:09.09. SDSU continued its run, picking up victories in the 100-yard butterfly, the 200 IM, and the top two finishes in the 500-yard freestyle.

Senior Morgan McLain swam a season’s best 2:07.88 in the 200-yard IM, beating out UNO’s Kylie Rathbone by four seconds. Head coach Brad Erickson was pleasantly surprised with the amount of season’s bests swam at the meet.

“At the end of last night’s meet, between the men and the women, we had eleven season’s bests,” Erickson said. “We’ve never swam that well at this meet.”

The Jackrabbits are coming off a training camp in Florida, and potentially could have underperformed due to general fatigue and soreness.

“There are a lot of sore shoulders out there today, but I could not be happier with the way the girls have fought through it,” assistant coach Phil Hurley said.

Coming into the home stretch of the schedule, SDSU tends to use this dual meet as a measuring stick for physical readiness heading into the Summit League Championships.

“This is a two day meet, and the championships are three days, so we can get a good gauge of where we are physically and mentally going into the championships,” said Erickson.

SDSU will be swimming at USD on the Jan. 21, followed by meets at the University of North Dakota and the Minnesota Challenge. The Summit League Championships will be held Feb. 15 through Feb. 18 in Rochester, Mich.