Northwest Conference Swimming Championships
Day Two
OLYMPIA, WA ? (From Nick Dawson ? PLU SID) Puget Sound slightly increased its lead over Whitworth and moved a step closer to securing its fifth consecutive conference women's swimming title after the second day of the Northwest Conference Swimming Championships being held at College Recreation Center Pool on the campus of The Evergreen State College. The Loggers have 523.5 points compared to 466.5 for Whitworth. Rounding out the women's scores were Linfield with 295, Willamette with 234.5, Pacific Lutheran with 231.5, Whitman with 227 and Lewis & Clark with 118.
The men's standing were a little closer at the top with the same two schools battling it out for the team title going into Saturday's final day of competition. The Whitworth men have 430 points compared to 400 for defending champion Puget Sound. Linfield stayed close with 350 points, good for third place, followed by Pacific Lutheran with 303, Willamette with 297, Whitman with 176 and Lewis & Clark with 80.
Whitworth won three of the seven women's event finals on Friday, Puget Sound took two, and swimmers from the two schools tied for the 100 butterfly championship. The Loggers were able to increase a 37-point first day lead, however, with their outstanding depth, and the Tacoma school's 57-point advantage will be difficult for the Pirates to overcome. Whitworth has won more event titles than Puget Sound, but the Loggers clearly have a great advantage in depth with as many as four and five swimmers finishing in the top 16 and earning team points.
Whitworth's women got off to a strong start on Friday with wins in the 200 medley relay and the 400 individual medley. Erin Kay spearheaded both. She swam the anchor leg on the relay team that clocked 1:50.81, then came back after the intermission to break a meet record in the 400 IM. The senior from Roswell, Ga., who won the 200 individual medley by more than three seconds on Thursday, clocked 4:39.35 to break the former 400 IM mark of 4:40.18 by Kristen Veal of Puget Sound in 1998.
As impressive as the record was, Puget Sound swimmers finished third, fourth, fifth and eighth in the race to scored 56 points in the event compared to 33 for the Pirates.
Puget Sound junior Carla Fellezs successfully defended her championship in the 100 backstroke, clocking 1:00.96, and she swam a strong leadoff leg as the Loggers held off the Pirates in the closing event, the 800 freestyle relay, in a time of 7:55.01. Puget Sound broke the meet record in the event by .01 seconds, the former standard set last year by Whitworth.
The evening's most exciting race might have been the women's 100 butterfly in which Puget Sound's Donella Adrian and Whitworth's Marta Holsinger tied for the championship, each touching the pad in 1:00.60.
The other women's event winner was Linfield's Aven Pendleton in the 100 breaststroke in a time of 1:08.55.
Whitworth dominated the victory stand in the men's competition to open up a lead over Puget Sound. The Pirates won both relays and three of the four individual event finals on Friday. Ryan Freeman was a double event champ for the Pirates on Friday night and in the process set the meet record in the 100 backstroke, winning in a time of 51.98. The former record was 52.15, set last year by Kyle Sexton of Puget Sound. Freeman also won the 100 butterfly in a time of 52.30, and was the leadoff swimmer in Whitworth's 200 medley relay win, that in 1:35.73. In addition, freshman Kevin Wang took the 400 individual medley in 4:07.20 and Troy Schuknecht won the 100 breaststroke in 58.65. Schuknecht, Wang, Brent Rice and Freeman combined to swim 7:03.39 in the 800 freestyle relay, a time that beat the field by more than 11 seconds.
Willamette sophomore Brady Childs was the champion in the 200 freestyle, swimming away from the field to win by more than two seconds in 1:43.48.
The Northwest Conference Swimming Championships concludes on Saturday preliminaries at 10 a.m. and finals at 6 p.m.