by Jessica Razanadrakoto
After spending more than 10 hours on a bus, the Whitworth swim teams pulled off a win in a quadrangular swimming meet against Whitman, Pacific and Lewis & Clark on Saturday afternoon.
Because of a traffic accident on I-84, a potential six-hour drive turned into a 10-hour drive that delayed the Pirates, forcing them to be late for their meet against Pacific. On top of that, Whitman was also late to its own meet against Lewis & Clark because of the traffic. Therefore, both meets were canceled and a quadrangular meet was held instead.
“We came from a very non-ideal circumstance after a long drive. We didn’t expect to race Whitman, we weren’t prepared for it, but we were able to rally and win the meet, so I call it a success,” junior Bridget Louis, the winner of the 400-yard individual medley in a time of 4:49.81, said.
Another win for the Pirate women came from sophomore Jerusha Dressel in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:10.50.
The Pirate women edged Whitman, 108-88, won against Pacific, 106-90 and defeated Lewis & Clark, 133-61.
For the Pirate men, freshman Brandon Smith took the 1,000-yard freestyle in a time of 9:58.26 and the 500-yard freestyle in 4:54.78. In addition, junior Wes Walton won the 400-yard individual medley in a time of 4:13.73. Freshman Jason Smith won the 100-yard backstroke in 53.37 while junior Kyle Wicks won the 100-yard breaststroke in 59.51.
Moving from a dual meet to a quad meet was unexpected for the teams, senior Wes Tatum said.
“It was a weird meet, quad meets are scored differently. In a dual meet, depth can be used to win the meet, whereas in a quad meet having one or two all-star swimmers make the difference between winning and losing,” Tatum said.
The Pirate men edged Whitman, 100-96, won against Pacific, 118-76 and overcome Lewis & Clark, 147-35.
The Whitworth teams knew it was going to be hard, especially competing with the Whitman team, who has the national champion in the 100-butterfly along with other skilled swimmers in other events, Tatum said.
“Staying mentally strong and mentally tough [helped],” Dressel said. “I was pretty tired on Saturday, physically from the school, but still put my best into the race and to my events.”
Whitworth swim teams continue competition on Dec. 5 at the Husky Invitational.