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| The coaches team up for a quick photo before finals. |
In tonight's finals session alone, we felled six school records and put three new Conference Champions up on the awards podium. We also potentially aided in the bursting of several eardrums in the vicinity between our defeaning cheers, some homemade paint bucket drums, and a particularly piercing vuvuzela. (The vuvuzela has since mysteriously gone missing, and here's to hoping nobody searches too hard for it.)
With a school record-setting 2:09.32 in the 200 IM, Claire earned her first NWC individual event title ever!
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| Pre-race Claire. Hard to believe, but that smile got even bigger after her race. |
Here is Coach Bendix's recap of the day's events:
Ashley Jay swam to a 7th place finish in the 500 freestyle with a season best 5:13.57. In the Consolation heat, Charlotte Graham pulled out a tremendous final 50 yards to win 9th place at 5:19.06. Galen Sollom-Brotherton won the Men's 500 freestyle to open the Men's individual events. His winning time of 4:31.38 earned him his second consecutive NWC crown in the event. After struggling with an ankle injury all season, captain Kevin Dyer swam to a proud 14th place finish in the 500 freestyle with a season-best 4:48.25; Kevin O'Leary was 12th with a 4:47.10.
Nic Win placed third in his 200 IM and reset his school record from his prelims swim with a 1:55.44. Dane Kawamoto was 14th in the event with a season-best 2:00.20, and Nick Wechter swam a great race to hold onto 7th place in the event with a 1:57.77.
Jennifer Tornay placed 14th in the 50 freestyle and Helen Jenne placed 8th with a 25.31. For the men, Paul Chang rocked the consolation final in the 50 free, going a 21.55 for 9th. Sam Starr placed 5th at 21.36 and Karl Mering was the Champion with a 20.87, just out-touching the second place finisher.
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| Jennifer gets ready to race. |
The 400 Medley Relay brought two more school records. Cameo Hlebasko, Genay Pilarowski, Melanie Notari and Kendra Clinton teamed up to go a 3:56.27, good enough for third place overall. On the Men's side, Sam Starr led things off with a new school record effort in the 100 backstroke at 51.94. Paul Chang, Karl Mering and Galen Sollom-Brotherton rounded out the team. Their time achieved an NCAA B cut and broke both the Whitman record and the Meet record in the event. Their total time was 3:23.76.
Not bad for day one.
