By McKenna Ehrmantraut, Swimming World College Intern.
The Pacific Northwest experienced a snowpocalypse during the PNW Conference, but the snow didn’t slow the swimmers as they lit up the pool. This year’s conference was unique in that there was an extra day added for the 200 medley and 800 free relays. Whitworth topped the leaderboard for the men, and Whitman College and Linfield College tied on the women’s side.
Day two brought the snow along with an amazing swim by the “Ledeky” of the NWC Conference, senior Evette Dow of Linfield, in her 500 free. On the men’s side, junior Owen Lempert of Whitworth just out-touched his opponents with a 20.49 in the 50 free, earring an NCAA DIII B cut qualification. Day two finished with Whitworth University pulling ahead on both the men’s and women’s teams.
Photo Courtesy: Gary Reimers
Day three was filled with select cuts for NCAAs, including outstanding swims by Kelli Callahan (Puget Sound) in the 400 IM, Kaycee Simpson (Pacific Lutheran) and Vianka Hoyer (Linfield) in the women’s 100 fly, Noah Cutting (Linfield) and Eben Schumann (Whitworth) in the men’s 100 fly, and Jamie Siegler (Whitworth) in the 100 breast. The women’s 100 back was quite the race, with Hannah Galbraith (Whitworth) barely out-touching Mara Selznick (Whitman) by .08. Both women earned a B cut into NCAAs, which is very impressive for Selznick, who has only been swimming for one month of the season due to studying abroad. The men’s 200 free proved to be the race of the evening, with freshmen Brett Kolb (Puget Sound) and Finn McClone (Whitworth) battling to the end where Kolb out-touched McClone by .09. At the end of day three, Linfield women and Whitworth men held the leads.
Photo Courtesy:
The snow and ice, very rare for the PNW, caused a change in format on the final day as the safety of swimmers and spectators took center stage. All events became timed finals in order to get the meet completed before the pool was closed due to the inclement weather.
The men’s 1650 was a race from start to finish, with Dylan Reimers placing first at a 16:06.27 followed closely by Matt Lemire (Linfield) and Kolb (Puget Sound). All three men earned their B cuts for NCAAs. Dow led the women’s mile from start to finish, securing an NCAA berth in her final conference meet. In another close race, Molli Hartzell (Linfield) out-touched Hannah Galbraith (Whitworth) by .26 with a 2:04.62 in the 200 back. Miranda Williams (Whitman) and Ryan Grady (Whitworth) both earned their selective cuts for NCAAs in the 200 breast. Simpson (Pacific Lutheran) and Cutting (Linfield) earned their selective cuts in the 200 fly.
Photo Courtesy: Gary Reimers
The meet concluded with a close race in the Men’s 400 free relay, with Whitworth (Lempert, McClone, George Gonzalez, and, Schuman) out-touching Linfield (Trevor Gourley, Cutting, Mitchell Morrison, and Tyler Cook) by .05 seconds.
The Whitman women and Whitworth Men took home the team titles after four days, and Callahan won the women’s swimmer of the year title with Grady, Rossmiller and Cutting sharing the men’s honor. Linfield’s Hoyer took the women’s freshman swimmer of the year honor, and Kolb took the men’s freshman of the year honor.
It was a great weekend of racing in the Northwest Conference, and best of luck to the conference swimmers heading the NCAA finals in Greensboro, N.C.
Click here to view the full results of the meet.
.jpg "NCAA Division III Coverage - logo"){kind=logo}
Mara Selznick Kit Selznick Scott Filipiak Martha Bray