Kirsten Sautel committed to swim for the University of Idaho in a ceremony held Wednesday, March 19, in The Commons at Sweet Home High School.
Sautel said she chose the Vandals program after visiting Idaho on the advice of a friend.
“Originally, it was not my plan to go to Idaho,” she said. “I had a couple other colleges in mind. Then I had a friend from Idaho say, like, ‘Hey, you should reach out to my coach.’
“And so I said, ‘OK,’ and I ended up going for a visit, and I thought it was a place for me. I absolutely loved the teammates and the coaches and the atmosphere. It was amazing.”
She said she particularly likes the fact that Moscow, Idaho, isn’t “too far away” and she said she likes the weather there.
“I did not want to go to the East Coast,” Sautel said. “I wanted to stay here. And since Oregon does not have a D-1 team, I wanted to see where I could go.”
She said she also likes the fact that the Vandals are “a bigger team than usual; they allow more people to walk on,” although she will be a scholarship athlete.
She said she expects to continue to specialize in the 100 Breaststroke, an event in which she has won three straight state titles.
“I mainly went for the 100 Breast, but they could use me as a sprinter, in the 50 or 100 Free, and in the 200 Breast,” she said.
Under Head Coach Mark Sowa, Idaho women’s swimming and diving has posted four top-four finishes at the Western Athletic Conference Championships, including a program-best runner-up finish in 2014, led by WAC Swimmer of the Year Rachel Millet. The Vandals took third in back-to-back seasons of 2017 and 2018.
Next year, Idaho will join the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation with fellow newcomers Cal Baptist, New Mexico State, Northern Arizona, Northern Colorado, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and Utah Tech. Pacific, Pepperdine, San Diego, and Incarnate Word, already MPSF members, will complete the 11-school conference in swimming.
Sweet Home Coach A Jay Bronson called Sautel “a phenomenal athlete.”
“It’s a big sore spot next year when we lose her, a big hole to fill, but we’re excited to see her move on and continue swimming.
“She came in at a time when swimming was at its peak with Chloe (Tyler) and Jamie (Seward), and she kind of took those reins and carried it forward, evidenced by three back-to-back-to-back championships in the 100 Breast for state, only losing her freshman year to Josie Hewitt.”
Sautel joins Hewitt, at Colorado College, and Tyler, at Illinois State, in the college ranks.
He said he expects Sautel to “do well” at that level.
“It’s gonna be different, a whole new landscape, but she can be the top breaststroker on her team,” Bronson said. “She doesn’t walk in being the fastest, but she has the chance to be the best, which is a good spot to be in.
“She’s trained here with us anywhere from 10 to 12 hours a week and that can easily go up to 15 or 19 hours, and with weights and nutrition and stuff that we don’t do.”
Sautel said she plans to major in psychology with the goal of becoming a therapist or school counselor – and very possibly a swim coach.
“That’ll be like a side gig,” she said.