Whitworth Men’s and Women’s swim teams competed at the Northwest Conference swimming championships last weekend in Federal way.
The Pirate men finished the weekend in third place behind Whitman and Pacific Lutheran. Whitworth’s women’s team finished fifth on the weekend.
After the first day of the championships, Whitworth’s men sat in second place overall thanks to a win in the 200-yard freestyle relay and a record-setting 50-yard freestyle victory.
Owen Lempert, ‘20, set the new Northwest Conference record in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 20.68 seconds. Lempert just edged out Linfield’s Neirton Oliveira, who swam the event in 20.69 seconds. Both times will advance the swimmers to the Division III championships in March.
On the women’s side, the Bucs highest individual finish came from Megan Thompson, ‘18. Thompson finished fourth in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:11.31. Whitworth finished the day in fifth place.
Day two did not serve the Pirates as well as day one. The Bucs dropped to third place on the men’s side while the women remained in fifth.
Individual highlights included Eben Schumann, ‘19, setting a new Pirate record in the 100-yard butterfly. Schumann’s 48.68 mark will also keep him swimming into March. Patrick Wilber, ‘18, also took home an event title with a win in the 100-yard backstroke.
Hannah Galbraith, ‘20, had the highest women’s finish of the day. She finished second in the 100-yard backstroke with a Division III championship qualifying time of 57.20. Thompson had the next highest finish by a women’s swimmer with another fourth place finish in the 200-yard freestyle.
On day three Whitworth’s best event proved to be the 200-yard backstroke. Wilber and freshmen Byron Rossmiller finished first and second in the event, outpacing the third place finisher by nearly two seconds. Junior Jane Holmes had the second best women’s finish of the day in that event as well, placing fourth.
Whitworth swimmers performed well outside of the 200-yard backstroke as well. Thompson finished in third place of the women’s 1650-yard freestyle with a time of 18:06.15 seconds. Freshman Keenan Robinson won the same event on the men’s side with a time of 16:20.15 seconds. The Pirate men also finished second in the 400-yard freestyle relay, just .45 seconds behind Linfield.
