Husky Invite, Day 2

It was another exciting day in Federal Way at the Husky Invitational!  Karl Mering took the spotlight today with two incredible swims.  First, he swam the first leg of the 800 free relay with a Whitman record setting 200 freestyle time of 1:40.11.  Then, in finals he lowered his Whitman and NWC record in the 100 butterfly with a second place effort of 48.29.  Mering placed 8th at the 2013 NCAA DIII National Championships.  The 2013 champion, MIT's Wyatt Ubellacker, graduated and Karl showed tonight that he is as ready as anyone in the Nation to take control of the event at this year's championships.

Other highlights of the night were the Men's and Women's 200 medley relays.  Whitman's Women placed higher than any other NWC team, 6th overall, with a time of 1:48.63, just .6 off the Whitman school record.  Seniors Claire Collins, Mel Notari, and Keller Hawkins combined with Fr, Tai Hallstein, for the relay.  Collins had the landmark swim of the race with her breaststroke split of 29.79, her fastest ever 50 breaststroke and her first time under 30 second barrier.  

The Men's 200 medley consisted of Nic Win, Nick Wechter, Karl Mering, and Sam Starr.  The men combined forces to place 11th with a season best 1:37.13.  Cole Weinstein was the first individual event finalist of the evening in the 400 IM.  His finals effort of 4:17.17 was good enough for 21st overall and his prelims swim of 4:16.92 places him solidly into Whitman's top-10 all time in the event.  Fellow freshman, Sean Terada, found himself in 32nd place in the Men's 100 fly finals after several higher seeds scratched from finals.  Sean swam a 53.03 and moved up to 31st.  His prelims time of 52.97 also earned him a place in Whitman's top-10.  

Claire Collins followed with a fantastic breaststroke.  She lowered her prelims time of 1:06.49 to 1:06.28 and earned herself 12th place overall.  Nic Win and Sam Starr each lowered their prelims swims in the 100 backstroke finals going 53.15 and 52.68, respectively.  Sam finished 11th, Nic 17th.

Other great swims today were Shanley Miller's season-best 4:46.39, which placed her into Whitman's top-10 list, and Mel Notari's 100 butterfly time of 58.98 which is her season-best time and her first sub 1:00 100 fly of the season.  

There were many, many more best times at today's meet.  For the full results, be sure to click through the live results page.  

We'll be back at the pool again tomorrow morning and then we'll be passing up finals and instead will head back to freezing cold Walla Walla (today's high was 12 with a windchill of as low as -6) for the final two weeks of the semester.  And, as tradition and popular demand dictates, we'll be watching the Holiday favorite, Love Actually, on the bus ride back home.