CORVALLIS, Ore. – Bolstered by winning both of the day's relays, the Pacific Lutheran University women took a big lead while the Whitworth University men held a narrow three-point margin over Whitman College after the first day of the Northwest Conference Swimming Championships Friday here at the Osborn Aquatic Center.
WomenAfter five events, PLU leads Whitworth University 217-154 in team points. Whitman College is third with 138 points, followed by the University of Puget Sound with 133, Pacific University (Ore.) 99, Willamette University 76, Linfield College 74, and Lewis & Clark College 46.
PLU captured the 200 yard freestyle relay in 1:37.11 to the open the evening finals and then won the last women's race of the session, the 400 yard medley relay, in 3:53.53. In between, the Lutes also picked up a win when Erica Muller took the 500 yard freestyle in 5:02.18.
In other women's highlights, Katie Porter of Pacific University (Ore.) became a four-time champion in the 50 yard freestyle with a 23.76, only 18/100ths of a second off her conference and NWC Championship meet record of 23:58 in 2012. Jacqueline Beal of Whitworth won the 200 yard individual medley in 2:07.68.
NWC women achieved four provisional qualifying marks for the NCAA Division III National Championships during the day. Included were Muller in the 500 freestyle, Beal in the 200 individual medley, Porter in the 50 freestyle, and Tai Hallstein of Whitman College with a 23.75 in the 50 yard freestyle preliminaries in the morning session.
MenWhitworth leads Whitman by a slim 198-195 score after Whitman won the final event of the day, the men's 400 medley relay, with a new NWC Championship record of 3:21.83. The Missionaries also held the previous mark of 3:22.48 in last year's meet. Puget Sound is third with 147 points, followed by Pacific Lutheran with 125, Pacific (Ore.) 78, Willamette 70, Linfield 67, and Lewis & Clark 57.
Whitman also established new conference and NWC Championship records in the 200 freestyle relay with a 1:22.44, breaking Puget Sound's records of 1:22.63 in 2009. Winning an individual race for Whitman was Loic McGiverin-Odeide with a 21.09 in the 50 freestyle.
Whitworth's Brandon Smith won the 500 freestyle in 4:36.14, while Wesley Walton repeated as NWC champion in the 200 individual medley with a 1:51.44, just off his NWC and NWC meet mark if 1:51.30 which he set last year.
There were six provisional qualifying marks for the NCAA Championships reached by the NWC men on Friday. Smith and Cole Weinstein of Whitman with a 4:36.43 in the 500 freestyle qualified, as did Walton, Jason Smith of Whitworth with a 1:51.94 in the 200 individual medley, and Matt Wehr of Pacific Lutheran with a 1:53.19 in the 200 IM preliminaries. Whitworth's 400 medley relay team made it as well with a 3:23.81.
