WALLA WALLA, Wash.  Whitman and visiting College of Idaho each picked up a victory Saturday afternoon, as the Blues women earned a 145-106 victory while the Coyotes men took a 152.5-105.5 decision in a non-conference swimming dual meet at Harvey Pool.

The Yotes won the opening women's and men's relays, but Abbey Felley's victory in the next event, the women's 1,650-yard freestyle, generated momentum from which to build for the Blues women.

First-place swims by Zoë Hill and Mara Selznick in the next two events opened an advantage for Whitman. Hill and Gaby Thomas took first and second in the 200 free, then Selznick and Jill Low touched in a first and third finish in the 100 backstroke.

Consecutive second- and third-place finishes in the 100 breaststroke and 200 butterfly held off the Lady Yotes until Hill dived in the pool again, this time to claim victory in the 50 free.

Another win from Selznick, in the 200 backstroke, and a pair of 2-3 finishes sandwiched around a 1-2 finish in the 500 free continued to expand the women's lead.

Felley and Erin Tyler added a 2-3 touch in the final event, the 400 individual medley, to negate a Yotes win in the event, setting up a final relay-for-fun with the meet's victor already decided.

Still hard at work, though, the Whitman women put together a pair of 400 free relays in the final event that took first and second to put an exclamation mark on their victory over the visiting NAIA school.
Thomas, Tara Stahlecker, Low and Hill teamed up to win that relay, while Paige Dempsey, Sarah Davidson, Katie Davidson and Leah Petrini united for a second-place finish.

After Idaho's win in the opening 200 men's medley relay forged a quick lead, the Coyotes stretched the advantage a bit with the top finish in the 1,650. Alex Izbiky and Luke Husband finished second and third in the event, however, to keep the Blues in touch on the scoreboard.

Another victory, coming in the 100 back, pushed Idaho's advantage upward, but Kieran Lenssen's win in the 100 breaststroke began to pull Whitman closer.

The Blues won two of the next five individual events -- Clark Sun in the 50 free, and Keith Nussbaum in the 200 breaststroke -- and added a 2-3 finish in between but Idaho added enough first-place touches to take a sizable advantage into the final relay.

Noah Schlenk, Colin Aslett, Clark Sun and Jared Sears joined together on that 400 free relay and captured a two-second win over the Coyotes' relay entries.

The mental toughness of her team was one of the things head coach Jennifer Blomme was happy to mention after the meet.

"Our big challenge, honestly, regardless of win/loss outcome, was to stay in the game mentally today," explained Blomme.  "I knew that could be an issue going into the Thanksgiving Break," which began the day before.

"Over the last few weeks swimming and school have both picked up in terms of workload and intensity, and our swimmers definitely walked into the pool tired today. 

"What I'm most pleased with today is how the team turned that around almost immediately, especially when the first two relays didn't go our way. It would have been so easy to concede right away, but we kept at it," added Blomme.

Next up for Whitman is the three-day Logger Invitational on December 1–3 at the University of Puget Sound. The three-day event caps off the fall semester portion of the schedule for Whitman, which then next competes at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges in January 2018 over the Blues' winter training trip.