Oct. 15, 2010

Results

STOCKTON, Calif. - Rugile Mileisyte won two events during the first day of competition to lead the Washington State University swim team at the TYR Pacific Invitational, Friday.

The senior from Alytus, Lithuania notched her first win of the meet in the 200 freestyle, touching the wall in a time of 1:53.86. Mileisyte's second individual race was the 50 freestyle, where she beat out Brigham Young's Aleesha Miller by one hundredth of a second to earn another individual victory.

The 200 freestyle was the Cougars' strongest event, as four swimmers finished in the top 10 behind Mileisyte. Evelina Bieleckaite took third while Jennifer Dean was less than a tenth of a second behind to finish fourth. Jenna Bekker finished seventh and Emma Neely touched the wall in ninth.

Bieleckatie, Bogert and Bekker each had another top-10 performance as they finished third, eighth and ninth in the 50 freestyle, respectively.

Senior Talor Whitaker and junior Jessie Craig each had a grabbed third-place points for the Cougars. Whitaker did so by finishing with a time of 4:31.27 in the 400 individual medley while Craig's performance came in the 100 breast (1:05.62).

Whitaker (100 breaststroke) and Dean (1650 freestyle) each had another top-10 finish while Shelbi Luchini earned one in the 400 individual medley (ninth).

The WSU 200 medley relay "A" team, and 400 freestyle medley "A" team each finished second behind BYU.

"We had some solid swims today," said head coach Erica Quam. I believe this meet is helping our freshmen get experience racing when they are tired. Tomorrow we'll focus on a new day and seeing we can come back on the second day and fight to close the gap with BYU."

The final 10 events of the meet are scheduled to begin tomorrow at 11 a.m.