The Whitworthian

Issue date: 2/20/07 Last Updated: 8/9/07

Freshman Natalie Turner swims in the 200-freestyle final on the second day of the three-day meet, a race she won. Turner set the new NWC record in the preliminary swim that morning with a time of 1:52.76.

Both the men's and the women's Whitworth swim teams had impressive showings in the Northwest Conference meet two weekends ago. The men's team finished first, narrowly beating out Linfield College, 627-609, and the women finished second to UPS.

The men's team was favored going into the meet, but faced a disastrous setback after their 400-medley relay was disqualified Friday. This disqualification dropped them to third place after the first day of the meet.

"That was hard to get through," junior David Dolphay said.

They did come back over the next two days of competition to win the NWC meet for the fifth year in a row.

The Pirate men had four individual wins, three coming from Dolphay in the 500-freestyle in 4:39.16, the 200-freestyle in 1:42.52 and the 1650-freestyle in 16:06.98, in which he met the NCAA provisional qualifying time. Though he qualified for nationals in past seasons, this was his first national qualifying time this year in his final opportunity to do so.

"I got in on the very last day, so it was pretty relieving to get it," Dolphay said.

Junior Bryan Clarke contributed with an individual title of his own, winning the 200-breaststroke in 2:09.51.

Also swimming well for the Pirates were junior Luke Stocker, finishing second in the 100-backstroke and third in the 200-backstroke; freshman Kris Aleson, finishing third in the 200-freestyle and 100-freestyle; and junior Jason Hunter, finishing second in the 200-butterfly and fourth in the Individual Medley.

The Whitworth women won 12 of 18 events in the meet, but were beat out by UPS. The UPS women's swim team has won conference for the past eleven years.

"We hoped that this year would be the year we took UPS down, but we all swam well. I think we'll get them next year," junior Katelyn Erickson said.

Freshman Natalie Turner led the Pirates, mirroring Dolphay's performance by winning the 200-freestyle in 1:53.7, the 500-freestyle in 5:03.2, and the 1650-freestyle in 17:37.63. Turner qualified for nationals in all three of her events.

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