Oregon State
Washington
Beavers Fall To No. 23 Washington
February 07, 2004 | Women's Swimming
Feb. 7, 2004
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Birte Steven won a pair of events in her final home meet and Kristin Huston also won twice for Oregon State but the Beavers fell to 23rd-ranked Washington 141-121 in Pacific-10 swimming Saturday at Stevens Natatorium. OSU (8-4 overall, 2-2 Pac-10) and Washington (10-5, 3-0) now get set for the Pacific-10 Championships, to be held Feb. 26-28 at Long Beach, Calif.
In front of a standing-room-only crowd on Saturday, the Beavers and Huskies won seven events each. But with 15 swimmers available for the meet, OSU couldn't equal the second- through fifth-place points of the Huskies' 20-woman squad.
"We need a little more depth - that's the key for us right now," OSU head coach Larry Liebowitz said. "We have some great swimmers and they did a great job. Our goal was to bring it to the last relay, which we did, but we just didn't have quite enough depth to get it."
Going into the final event - the 400-yard freestyle relay - the Beavers needed to finish first and third to win the meet, but earned only the third-place finish.
Steven, OSU's five-time All-American and the only senior on Oregon State's roster, won the 100 breaststroke and 200 individual medley. That gave her 99 career victories, the second-highest total for OSU in the Pac-10 era behind Naya Higashijima's 103 from 2000-03.
"You've got to be proud of the career that Birte has had at OSU," Liebowitz said. "She's setting a standard that is going to be hard to replicate in future years. She was trying for an amazing triple at the start of the meet, and she nearly pulled it off."
Steven swam a leg of OSU's victorious 200 medley relay to start the meet. In the day's third event, she was edged by .26 seconds to finish second in the 200 freestyle; Steven then climbed back in the blocks for the fifth event and won the 100 breaststroke.
Huston, a junior, ran her career win total to 50 with victories in the 50 and 100 freestyles. She ranks third on OSU's list of career wins leaders in the Pac-10 era.
Steven and Mari Embertson combined to finish one-two in the 100 breaststroke, pushing the Beavers into their final lead of the afternoon at 47-46. After Huston won the 100 freestyle, OSU was still within 76-74 after eight events; when Huston won the 200 breaststroke, the Beavers' deficit was still just 95-93 after 10 events.
Washington managed to take first, third and fourth in the 500 freestyle, though, bumping its lead to 109-98 and extended that to 119-107 after 12 events. The Beavers rallied, though, as Steven won her final race at Stevens Natatorium in the 200 individual medley to make it 126-119 and at least give Oregon State a chance to win the meet in the final event.
Now OSU has nearly three weeks to concentrate on training prior to the Pacific-10 Championships.
"The Pac-10s should be a really good meet," Liebowitz said. "We hadn't rested to get ready for dual meets; everything has been going toward our swims at the Pac-10s and I believe we'll be very good there."
NO. 23 WASHINGTON 141, OREGON STATE 121
200 MEDLEY RELAY - 1. Oregon State (Pacebutaite, Steven, C. Kinney, Huston), 1:45.92; 2. Washington (Bernard, Staubitz, Johnson, Epperson), 1:46.29; 3. Washington (Real, Owen, Hilyard, Fanning), 1:49.34; 4. Oregon State (Thomas, Embertson, Miroslaw, Marhenke), 1:50.03; 5. Washington (Vayo, Trimberger, Latzen, Rawlings), 1:50.25. 1,000 FREESTYLE - 1. Sharon Olson, UW, 10:08.46; 2. Sandy Hong, OSU, 10:11.78; 3. Hannah Jo, UW, 10:25.39; 4. Kristi Kuhlmey, OSU, 10:25.52; 5. Courtney Hentzen, UW, 10:29.65; 6. Haley Wolcott, UW, 10:46.24. 200 FREESTYLE - 1. Blythe Murray, UW, 1:50.83; 2. Birte Steven, OSU, 1:51.09; 3. Liya Liu, UW, 1:54.61; 4. Danielle Kinney, OSU, 1:54.86; 5. Crystal Rawlings, UW, 1:57.27; 6. Jessie Hong, OSU, 1:57.88; 7. Chelsea Keown, OSU, 2:00.45.100 BACKSTROKE - 1. Ausra Pacebutaite, OSU, 56.66; 2. Desiree Johnson, UW, 56.80; 3. Nicole Bernard, UW, 57.41; 4. Ashleigh Thomas, OSU, 59.06; 5. Nichole Real, UW, 59.35; 6. Annette Vayo, UW, 59.88; 7. Lynsey Foree, OSU, 1:013.15. 100 BREASTSTROKE - 1. Birte Steven, OSU, 1:04.48; 2. Mari Embertson, OSU, 1:04.92; 3. Melody Staubitz, UW, 1:05.85; 4. Erin Kloos, UW, 1:06.37; 5. Rachel Owen, UW, 1:06.79; 6. Brittany Trimberger, UW, 1:06.89; 7. Chelsea Keown, OSU, 1:13.50. 200 BUTTERFLY - 1. Anissa Hilyard, UW, 2:02.49; 2. Monika Miroslaw, OSU, 2:05.65; 3. Christina Kinney, OSU, 2:06.72; 4. Casey Sherfey, UW, 2:07.72; 5. (tie) Hannah Jo, UW, and Jennifer Latzen, UW, 2:08.94; 7. Leah Schaab, OSU, 2:10.38. 50 FREESTYLE - 1. Kristin Huston, OSU, 24.08; 2. Lisa Fanning, UW, 24.24; 3. Liya Liu, UW, 24.37; 4. Brittany Epperson, UW, 24.42; 5. Brie Marhenke, OSU, 24.78; 6. Melody Staubitz, UW, 25.09; 7. Lynsey Foree, OSU, 26.92; 8. Kristi Kuhlmey, OSU, 26.21. 100 FREESTYLE - 1. Kristin Huston, OSU, 52.21; 2. Liya Liu, UW, 52.27; 3. Lisa Fanning, UW, 52.73; 4. Brittany Epperson, UW, 53.94; 5. Crystal Rawlings, UW, 54.08; 6. Danielle Kinney, OSU, 54.15; 7. Brie Marhenke, OSU, 54.70; 8. Lynsey Foree, OSU, 58.71. 200 BACKSTROKE - 1. Nicole Bernard, UW, 2:01.54; 2. Ausra Pacebutaite, OSU, 2:04.64; 3. Ashleigh Thomas, OSU, 2:05.48; 4. Nichole Real, UW, 2:07.45; 5. Jessie Hong, OSU, 2:08.02; 6. Annette Vayo, UW, 2:09.31. 200 BREASTSTROKE - 1. Mari Embertson, OSU, 2:20.62; 2. Erin Kloos, UW, 2:20.65; 3. Brittany Trimberger, UW, 2:23.55; 4. Leah Schaab, OSU, 2:23.87; 5. Rachel Owen, UW, 2:24.47; 6. Chelsea Keown, OSU, 2:35.42. 500 FREESTYLE - 1. Sharon Olson, UW, 4:57.65; 2. Sandy Hong, OSU, 5:00.71; 3. Blythe Murray, UW, 5:06.90; 4. Courtney Hentzen, UW, 5:07.93; 5. Danielle Kinney, OSU, 5:12.24; 6. Krist Kuhlmey, OSU, 5:12.97; 7. Haley Wolcott, UW, 5:18.43. 100 BUTTERFLY - 1. Anissa Hilyard, UW, 57.80; 2. Christina Kinney, OSU, 58.83; 3. Kristin Huston, OSU, 4. Monika Miroslaw, OSU, 58.91; 5. Jennifer Latzen, UW, 59.26; 6. Casey Sherfey, UW, 59.48; 7. Desiree Johnson, UW, 59.64. 200 INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY - 1. Birte Steven, OSU, 2:04.14; 2. Sharon Olson, UW, 2:04.23; 3. Erin Kloos, UW, 2:07.74; 4. Mari Embertson, OSU, 2:08.00; 5. Leah Schaab, OSU, 2:10.13; 6. Monika Miroslaw, OSU, 2:10.79; 7. Hannah Jo, UW, 2:11.98. 400 FREESTYLE RELAY - 1. Washington (Liu, Johnson, Fanning, Olson), 3:30.31; 2. Washington (Staubitz, Epperson, Rawlings, Murray), 3:32.90; 3. Oregon State (Pacebutaite, Marhenke, C. Kinney, D. Kinney), 3:33.30; 4. Oregon State (S. Hong, Kuhlmey, Thomas, J. Hong), 3:39.07; 5. Washington (Vayo, Owen, Kloos, Hentzen), 3:43.18.
