by Jessica Razanadrakoto
The Whitworth Pirates’ swimming teams won their only two home meets of the season against the Willamette Bearcats on Friday night and against the Linfield Wildcats on Saturday afternoon.
Similar to last season’s meet, the Pirates swept the Bearcats with the Pirate women winning 10 of the 11 events, outscoring them 144-60. In addition, the men seized all 11 events instead of 10, blowing Willamette out of the water, 155-49. The performance the next day was more of the same against Linfield where the Pirate women won 136-69 and the men won 164-41.
“Racing the teammates and working hard these past couple of weeks [were key],” sophomore Logan Streit said.
The Pirate men took both relays on Friday night. Juniors Wes Walton, Kyle Wicks, Lucas Lin and senior Wes Tatum won the opening 200 yard medley relay with a time of 1:35.98, while Walton, Wicks, Lin and senior Callum MacKintosh won the closing 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:27.80.
The Pirate women freshman Jane Holmes, sophomore Jackie Beal, junior Bridget Louis and senior Alisa Stang took the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:53.74. Freshman Makayla Barringer, Holmes, sophomore Jerusha Dressel, and Stang won the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 1:42.68.
“We had a lot of girl freestylers in the sprint events that dropped a lot of time and that was an area we needed to improve,” Schadt said. “There were five or six women that all improved in that area from where they were a couple of weeks ago.”
Junior Malia Santos took the Bearcats’ only victory in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 25.83.
“We’ve been training really hard and I’ve been working on a few key things with my speed,” Walton said. “For my freestyle, I was working on the correct underwater distance to swim before I came up to the surface.”
The Pirates’ main goal for the season is to take home the top spots in each event in the conference meet, and the Pirates proved they were capable after this weekend, Streit said.
On Saturday afternoon, freshman Patrick Wilbur led a 1-2-3 finish for the Pirates in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:48.64, junior Kevin Moore led another one in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:55.11, and junior Trevor Case led the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:14.10.
“We all stepped up and tried to go 1,2,3 for all the events, [which] we did very well, so I hope we continue the momentum,” Streit said.
Walton, Tatum, Case and Wicks took the first 400-yard medley relay with a time of 3:33.48, ending with the closing win of the 400-yard freestyle relay led by Wilber, Streit, Lin and Mackintosh.
The Pirate women won the opening 400-yard medley relay and all nine individual events.
“I really love relays, they’re my favorite parts of swim meets,” Dressel said. “When I dive into the water, I’m not just swimming for myself, but for the other three girls.”
Wildcats sophomore Rita Cohen, Elizabeth Fry, Erin Nelson and Nikki Overton took Linfield’s only victory in the closing 400-yard freestyle relay (3:46.18 – 3:46.64).
Eight different swimmers combined to win all nine individual events on both days. Streit took first place in the 200-yard freestyle (1:47.49) and the 100-yard Freestyle (49.12) on Friday night, while Walton was the double winner for both the 200 yard individual medley (1:57.49) and the 200 yard backstroke (1:55.05) on Saturday afternoon.
Both Pirate teams improved to 2-0.
Whitworth Pirates travel to Pacific next Friday, Oct. 14 and Lewis & Clark on Saturday, Oct. 15 for their next competition.