Washington State Joining The Mountain West Conference For Women’s Swimming

By Anya Pelshaw on SwimSwam

With much of the Pac-12 moving elsewhere, the Washington State women’s swimming team has found a home in the Mountain West Conference for the next two years, beginning in the upcoming 2024-2025 season.

Back in December, Washington State and Oregon State, the final two members of the Pac-12, joined the West Coast Conference (WCC) for the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 seasons as affiliate members in all sports except football, swimming, and baseball. It had already been announced at the beginning of December 2023 that both Oregon State and Washinton State would join the Mountain West Conference (MWC) for football.

Now, the final two sports for Washington State, baseball and women’s swimming, have found a new home in the Mountain West as well.

Oregon State is not home to a swimming program as its women’s program was cut back in 2019. Oregon State did not have a men’s program at the time and Washington State does not have a men’s program.

Oregon State and Washington State were the only schools to not depart the Pac-12 for the Big 12, Big Ten, or ACC.

The Washington State women finished 8th out of 8 teams at the 2024 Women’s Pac-12 Championships. The team was led by sophomore Emily Lundgren who scored 61 individual points and was highlighted by a 2nd place finish in the 100 breast and a 3rd place finish in the 200 breast.

Lundgren earned an invite to 2024 Women’s NCAAs where she went on to make the ‘B’ final in the 200 breast as she swam a best time of a 2:07.30 in prelims. Lundgren’s ‘B’ final appearance was the program’s first NCAA finalist since 2007.

The team will join the Mountain West Conference for the next two seasons bringing the total in the MWC to 10 women’s swimming and diving programs, although Washington State does not have a diving team. The San Diego State women captured the 2024 Mountain West title.

SwimSwam: Washington State Joining The Mountain West Conference For Women’s Swimming