WALLA WALLA, Wash. -- Nancy Alexander and Erin Pettersen, pillars of the Whitman College women's swim team the past four years, were simply superlative Sunday night in powering the Missionaries to a third-place finish in the Northwest Conference Swimming Championships at the King Co. Aquatic Center in Federal Way, Wash.
Alexander won the 200-yard backstroke title for a third straight year, and Pettersen finished second in the 200-yard butterfly, smashing one of her school records for the second time in two days. As she did in Saturday's 100-yard buttefly, Pettersen also posted a strong provisional qualifying time for the NCAA national championships.
Meanwhile, with sophomore Eric Molnar placing third in one event and the Nusse brothers, Ysbrand and Jamie, finishing fourth in two others, the resurgent Whitman men's squad placed a strong fourth, finishing just 45.5 points behind third-place Linfield. The Missionary men lost 30 points to a disqualification in the final relay event, or the battle for third would have been closer yet.
In that final relay race, senior Clint Collier, sophomore David Lee and the Nusses had their sights set on placing first, knowing in advance that a relay victory would vault Whitman into third place in the men's final team scoring. While they didn't finish first, the Missionary foursome placed a strong fourth in 3:12.18 -- just two seconds behind the winning team. Whitman's time, had it not been negated by the disqualification, would have lowered the school record by two seconds.
In the combined men's and women's team scoring, Whitman took third place by a decisive margin, amassing a total of 854.5 points. Whitworth, which won both the men's and women's team titles, racked up 1,496.5 total points, finishing well ahead of Puget Sound's 1,293 points. Linfield was fourth in the eight-school field with 738 points.
In fourth place in the women's team scoring after the meet's first two days, Whitman rallied past Lewis & Clark on Sunday to place third for a second straight year, and for the third time in the past four seasons. The Missionary women finished with 411 points while Lewis & Clark had 392. Whitworth and Puget Sound were first and second with 793 and 692 points. With 443.5 points, the Whitman men placed fourth in their final standings for a second consecutive hear. The Missionary men were fifth two years ago and sixth in each of the three previous years.
"This was an incredible meet for Whitman," assistant coach Katharine Curles said. "It was awesome to see all of our swimmers step up and have amazing races. Everyone had great swims all weekend."
As she did a year ago, when she had the fifth-best time in the morning preliminaries, Alexander saved her competitive best for last in defending her NWC title in the 200-yard backstroke. After posting Sunday morning's third-best time in the preliminaries, Alexander took the lead about 120 yards into the championship race and then held off Whitworth's Marjorie Turner by four one-hundredths of a second. Her winning time was 2:09.99, about 1.4 seconds off the school record she set in 2006.
In her first trip to the NWC championships in 2005, Alexander finished second in the 200-yard backstroke to Whitworth's Katelyn Erickson. Alexander edged Erickson for the 2006 and 2007 titles before making it three straight on Sunday.
Pettersen, who placed third in the 200-yard butterfly in her first three trips to the NWC championships, was the runner-up on Sunday in 2:07.71, which obliterated her school record by more than three seconds. Her time undercut the provisional qualifying time for the NCAA Div. III national championships by more than two seconds and missed the automatic qualifying standard by about 1.3 seconds.
Pettersen also posted a strong provisional qualifying time on Saturday in placing second and lowering her school record in the 100-yard butterfly. Both of her weekend times would have earned her a ticket to last year's national championships. "Erin is so pumped and excited," Curles said. "The chances are fairly high that she will get to swim in the national championships in early March."
Molnar, who won the men's 400-yard individual medley on Saturday, placed third in Sunday's 200-yard butterfly in 1:58.59. He also took third in the event a year ago as a freshman. Molnar's latest times in both the 400 IM and 200 butterfly move him in second place all-time at Whitman for those events.
Ysbrand Nusse, a junior who placed second to Molnar in Saturday's 400 IM, was fourth in Sunday's 200-yard backstroke in 2:00.86 (2:00.35 in the morning preliminaries). Nusse was fourth in the event last year and third as a freshman.
Jamie Nusse, a freshman, was fourth in Sunday's 100-yard freestyle in 47.81, a time that moves him into the third place all-time at Whitman. He also placed fourth earlier in the meet in the 200-yard and 500-yard freestyle events, setting a new school record at the longer distance.
In the women's meet, senior Elizabeth Roberson wrapped up a strong senior season by placing third in the 1,650-yard freestyle in 18:38.00, which knocked more than five seconds off her career-best time. She ranks seventh all-time at Whitman in that event.
Claire Noone, a first-year swimmer, placed fourth in the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:36.26, which missed her season-best time by three one-hundredths of a second. Lauren Flynn, also a first-year swimmer, was seventh in the 100-yard freestyle in 56.49, a season-best time that moves her to sixth on Whitman's all-time list for that event.
Other Whitman men placing in championship heats were Lee, who was sixth in the 100-yard freestyle in 49.13 (48.69 preliminaries), and freshman Nick Wood and Collier, who were seventh and eighth, respectively, in the 200-yard breaststroke with times of 2:17.98 and 2:19.93. Wood's time in the preliminaries (2:17.74) moves him into fourth place all-time at Whitman, one spot in front of Collier. In his three previous championship meets, Collier had placed eighth twice and ninth in the breaststroke event.
Several Missionaries advanced to Sunday's consolation finals for places nine through 16. While Wood and Collier were finishing seventh and eighth in the 200-yard breaststroke, three teammates were piling up more team points in that event's consolation finals. Freshman Chad Trexler was 10th overall in 2:20.12, sophomore Nick Hurlburt was 13th in 2:24.83, and freshman Brian Wakefield was 14th in 2:25.85. Trexler's time in the preliminaries (2:19.21) moves him into sixth place all-time at Whitman for that event.
Freshman Nate Wells placed 10th with season-best times in two events. He was clocked at 18:24.48 in the 1,650-yard freestyle, finishing two spots in front of freshman Eliot Stone (18:47.38), and at 2:11.90 in the 200-yard butterfly. Max Hennings, a junior, was 15th in the 200-yard butterfly (2:22.86) and 18th in the 1,650-yard freestyle (19:57.42).
Sophomore George Stanton, bouncing back from injury, was 12th in the 200-yard backstroke in 2:09.38.
In the women's consolation finals, sophomores Kendi Thomas in the 200-yard backstroke and Chelsea Klinger in the 1,650-yard freestyle placed 10th overall. Swimming a 2:14.96, Thomas lowered her career-best time by more than five seconds and now ranks third all-time at Whitman in the backstroke event. Klinger's time in the 1,650-yard freestyle was a career-best 19:14.53
Seniors Ellen McCleery and Rhea Edelman placed 14th and 15th, respectively, in the 200-yard breaststroke with times of 2:42.25 and 2:44.49. McCleery, who returned to swimming this season after a year off, had placed as high as seventh in the event earlier in her career. Edelman, who swam a career-best 2:42.84 in the preliminaries, placed in the consolation finals for the third time in her four seasons.
Edelman also clocked a career-best 20:26.08 in placing 16th in the 1,650-yard freestyle for the second time in three years. Elli Matkin, a first-year swimmer, finished 19th in the mile freestle in a season-best 21:04.90.
Courtney Fitzpatrick, a junior who missed the fall semester swim season while studying abroad, placed 12th in the 200-yard butterfly in a season-best 2:23.65.