Northwest Conference Swimming Championships
Day One
OLYMPIA, WASH. ? (From Nick Dawson ? PLU SID) It simply can?t get any closer than this.
Whitworth College and defending champion University of Puget Sound are tied with 178 points apiece in the men?s division after the first day of the 2001 Northwest Conference Swimming Championships being held at Campus Recreation Center Pool on the campus of The Evergreen State College.
Puget Sound?s women had a solid start as they try to win their fifth straight NWC team championship. The Loggers scored 233 points to take a 37-point lead over Whitworth, second with 196 points.
Whitworth junior Brent Rice won his third straight individual title in the men?s 200-yard individual medley. Rice was locked in a battle with teammate Troy Schuknecht before winning by a touch in 1:56.02, followed by Schuknecht in 1:56.19. That wasn?t the only close men?s race as Willamette?s Brady Childs nudged Whitworth?s Kevin Wang in the 500-yard freestyle. Childs, who was second in the event last year as a freshman, was timed in 4:39.21, followed by Wang, himself a freshman, in 4:39.81.
In the only other men?s individual final, Whitman senior Tucker Jackson did the sophomore-senior split, winning the 50-yard freestyle in a time of 21.62. Jackson won the same event in his sophomore season.
Two men?s relays were contested on Thursday night. Willamette, with Childs swimming the final leg, won the 200-yard freestyle relay in a time of 1:26.96, almost a full second faster than Puget Sound?s 1:27.93. Whitworth easily won the men?s 400-yard medley relay by almost four seconds, clocking 3:30.78 with Rice and Schuknecht swimming the final two legs.
Men?s team scores after the first day showed Whitworth and Puget Sound with the aforementioned 178 points, followed by Willamette with 146 points, Linfield with 143, Pacific Lutheran with 110, Whitman with 78 and Lewis & Clark with 11.
Only one NWC meet record was broken Thursday, that by the Whitworth women in the 400-yard individual medley. Megan Haley, Megan Lambuth, Katie King and Kristin Satterfield clocked 4:02.35, slightly better than the 4:02.66 set by Whitworth in 1995. In addition to that relay, Whitworth also won the 200-yard freestyle relay and two of the three individual events. Still, Puget Sound held the lead by virtue of outstanding depth and a win by Mari Gantner in the 50-yard freestyle. Gantner successfully defended her championship in a time of 25.36.
Whitworth?s individual event winners were Katie King in the 500-yard freestyle in a time of 5:13.65, and Erin Kay in the 200-yard individual medley in a time of 2:10.53. Kay, the defending champion in the 200 IM, beat her nearest competition by almost 3 ? seconds.
The Northwest Conference Swimming Championships continue Friday with a preliminary session at 10 a.m. and finals in seven events at 6 p.m. The meet concludes on Saturday.