The men's and women's swim team walked away from the Northwest Invitational with first and second place finishes respectively this past weekend.
As the end of the first day of competition at the Invitational came to a close, the Whitworth men found themselves at the head of the pack with 368 points, 44 points ahead of University of Puget Sound in second and 108 points ahead of Whitman College in third.
"We got a little more rest since the competition is spaced out over two days," said senior Kris Asleson. "At the same time everyone is pretty tired because of the training."
Fatigue or no fatigue the men's swim team managed to showcase their talent well. In the men's 200 freestyle relay, the Bucs took first, slipping past the competition with a time of 1:28.56, 1.21 seconds faster than the second place finishers, UPS.
The men also triumphed over the competition in the 100 and 500 freestyle, with junior Michael Woodward taking first in both events.
Freshman Michael Locatell took first in the 200 butterfly, and the relay teams for the 800 freestyle and 400 medley relays pulled off a win for the Bucs.
The women's swim team sat in second, trailing behind UPS by 114 points, with Whitman in third at the end of the first day.
Senior Natalie Turner left the competition in her wake in the 500 freestyle, finishing with a time of 5:06.19, more than 10 second ahead of her UPS competitor, Mac MacAfee. Abby Pavelko challenged MacAfee for second, ultimately taking third with a time of 5:16.80.
Coming off of a loss from Division I Seattle University last weekend, the team still maintains a positive attitude about the Invitational.
"We had the guts to stand up on the blocks next to [Seattle] and go on and race and we're going to go out and do the same thing for the Invitational," said sophomore Kara Fisher, prior to the start of the Invitational.
The lead obtained by UPS proved to be too much for the women, who ended day two with 607 points as compared to the Logger's 801 points, keeping their second-place standing. The men managed to maintain their lead, beating UPS 647 to 628. Whitman placed third in both leagues.
The women's team dished out one last parting shot in the form of a win over the Loggers in the 400 freestyle relay, finishing with a time of 3:39.77.
The men continued to dominate, taking first in five more events, bringing the total to 12 first place finishes out of 18 races.
Pirate swimming will get an extended break from competition and pick up where they left off at the Cal Lutheran Invite on Jan. 2.
Contact Jessica Valencia at jessica.valencia@whitworthian.com.
Northwest Swimming Invitational
Published: Monday, November 23, 2009
Updated: Monday, November 23, 2009
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