Boise State Edges San Jose State for USD Relay Meet Win

Photo Credit: Boise State Athletics

SAN DIEGO – The Boise State swimming and diving team edged San Jose State by six points to capture first at the USD Relay Meet this afternoon at the University of San Diego. The Broncos won nine of the 10 relays to take home the team title.

Boise State Press Release

No. 24 Boise State, with 254 total points, outpointed San Jose State (248) and San Diego (135) at the USD Relay Meet in San Diego Saturday.

The Broncos captured nine of the 10 events at the all-relay competition, which included three-person relays in backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly in addition to the traditional four-person freestyle and medley relays.

“Today was all about racing. Everyone is training very hard this time of year, so the challenge is to get up and go as fast as possible,” said Boise State head coach Kristin Hill. “We did compete well today. Felicity Cann was a really tough competitor, swimming the toughest events and doing them well.”

Cann was part of three winning relays and put in considerable effort over the distance freestyle events. Her first win came in the 800 free relay with Jessica Bottelberghe, Emma Chard and Blake Balogh as the quartet touched the pad in 7:38.26 for a victory of over 15 seconds. Cann then swam the anchor leg of the 500 free relay, which was broken down into legs of 50, 100, 150 and 200 yards. Swimming the longest leg, Cann touched first to give the quartet of her, Katelyn Martin, Sam Wicks and Brittany Aoyama a final time of 4:32.62.

A few events later, Cann led off the 3×500 yard free relay in a time of 5:06.55 to stake Balogh and Amelia Draney to a lead that held up to a final time of 15:21.78, just under 16 seconds ahead of runner-up San Jose State. Her final event of the day was the 400 free relay, in which Cann, Monica Bottelberghe, Emily Blasko and Emri Moore took fourth in a final time of 3:37.40.

Aoyama, Martin and Jessica Bottelberghe opened the day for Boise State with a win in the 3×100 butterfly relay, as Bottelberghe wrapped up the team’s final time of 2:51.79. Wicks, Sydney Johansen and Nikki Cannon would turn in a time of 2:53.10 to capture the next event, the 3×100 backstroke, in just over a second and a half over San Jose State’s A team.

Chard, Heather Harper and Johansen finished second in the 3×100 breaststroke with a time of 3:20.84, just 1.29 seconds behind San Jose State’s winning trio.

After bounce-back wins in the 800 and 500 free relays, the Broncos won a tight 400 medley relay, as Wicks, Monica Bottelberghe, Harper and Johansen turned in a time of 3:59.52 to edge San Jose State’s A team by 0.68 of a second.

Aoyama, Martin, Chard and Jessica Bottelberghe captured the 400 free relay in 3:29.71 to close out the meet for Boise State.

“Sam Wicks had some great speed for this time of year. Amelia Draney also raced very well and her ability to finish a race strong with the training she has been doing is a great sign,” Hill noted. “We are looking forward to a few more days of training and great time together here in San Diego before we head to Denver for our dual meet Thursday.”

The Broncos remain in San Diego for a few more days, returning to action Tuesday (Jan. 6) for a scrimmage against San Diego State and North Texas. From there Boise State travels to Colorado for a dual meet against Denver on Thursday (Jan. 8).

San Jose State Press Release

The San Jose State University women’s swimming team was edged by Boise State University, 254-248, in the three-team University of San Diego Relay meet at the USD Sports Center Pool.

The host Toreros finished third with 135 points.

In their second meet in as many days, the Spartans trailed the Broncos by four points, 227-223, going into the final event, the 400 freestyle relay. Boise State won the meet with first and a fourth compared to San Jose State’s second and third place finishes in the race.

“I’m proud of how well we competed against them. Boise State is the top team in the Mountain West. They have depth and top-end swimmers,” said San Jose State head coach Sage Hopkins. “First and foremost, I’m very happy with our competitiveness and how tough we were. We’re in a good place mentally right now.

“We were mentally sharp and that’s what we want. It was a very good overall team performance.”

The Spartans’ only victory in the 10-event competition was the 3×100 breaststroke relay with Jenner Johnson, Dominique Yoder and Taylor Solorio swimming for San Jose State. The Spartans head coach praised his B entries which notched seven third-place finishes compared to none for Boise State B relays which kept the meet winner in doubt until the end.

San Jose State concludes three consecutive days of competition with a dual meet against UC San Diego, Sunday, January 5. First race is at 11:00 a.m.

Results: USD Relay Meet

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