Whitman Men, PLU Women Claim NWC Swim Titles

Whitman Men, PLU Women Claim NWC Swim Titles

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By Blair Cash, Northwest Conference Sports Information Director

Final Results
 
CORVALLIS, Ore. – With record times in both the men's and women's 400 yard freestyle relay races, the 2015 Northwest Conference Swimming Championships concluded Sunday here at the Osborn Aquatic Center with Whitman College claiming its first swimming title and Pacific Lutheran University successfully defending its women's crown.
 
MEN
Whitman's time of 3:02.44 in the 400 freestyle relay shattered the previous record of 3:05.64 in 1997 by the University of Puget Sound and gave them a total of 697.5 points to 641.5 for 2014 champion Whitworth University.  Pacific Lutheran was third with 521.5, followed by Puget Sound with 437, Willamette University with 252, Linfield College with 250, Pacific University (Ore.) with 212, and Lewis & Clark College with 161.5.
 
One other men's record was broken during the morning preliminaries as Wesley Walton of Whitworth swam the 200 yard backstroke in 1:48.36 to surpass his own mark of 1:48.45 in last year's NWC meet.  He later won the finals with a 1:49.16.
 
In the opening event Sunday evening, Brandon Smith of Whitworth repeated as the 1650 yard freestyle with a 16:05.29.  The 100 yard freestyle went to Clark Sun of Whitman in 45.92.  The 200 yard breaststroke saw a rare occurrence as Trevor Case of Whitworth and Joe Bowley of PLU tied for the title at 2:05.05.  Karl Mering of Whitman successfully defended his crown in the 200 yard butterfly with a time of 1:49.18, a mere 12/100ths of a second ahead of Wesley Tatum of Whitworth.
 
Whitworth's Walton and Whitman's Mering were named 2015 Northwest Conference Men's Co-Swimmers of the Year, while Jennifer Blomme of Whitman was named the Men's Coach of the Year.
 
WOMEN
Pacific Lutheran capped its title with a 3:30.86 in the 400 freestyle relay, bettering by one second the 3:31.86 by Whitworth in 2010 and giving them 779 points.  Whitman was a distant second with 524, followed by Whitworth at 486, Puget Sound at 410, Pacific at 319, Linfield at 266, Willamette at 253, and Lewis & Clark at 158.
 
Tai Hallstein of Whitman also set a new conference mark in the 100 yard freestyle with a 51.73 to pass the 51.87 by Carla Fellezs of Puget Sound in 2002.  Two swimmers successfully defended titles from last year: Amanda Clark of Pacific with a 17:16.03 in the 1650 freestyle and Jacqueline Beal of Whitworth with a 2:03.92 in the 200 backstroke.
 
Elise Tinseth of Whitman became the new 200 breaststroke champion with a time of 2:25.46.  In the 200 butterfly, Bridget Louis of Whitworth edged three-time champion Melissa Norrish of Puget Sound 2:06.19 to 2:07.02.
 
Whitworth's Beal was named the 2015 Northwest Conference Women's Swimmer of the Year, and Matt Sellman of Pacific Lutheran was named the Women's Coach of the Year
 
 
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