Swim Championships Start Friday; Whits Eye Top Three Finishes

WALLA WALLA, Wash. -- The 2012 Northwest Conference Swimming Championships get underway Friday morning and continue through Sunday evening at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, Wash.

Blomme

Both Whitman College teams have their sights set on placing third or better in the eight-school field.

The morning preliminaries at the three-day event start 10 a.m. each day. Swimmers with the top 16 times in the preliminaries of the individual events advance to the evening finals, which start at 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday and at 5 p.m. on Sunday.

Puget Sound is hosting the championship event. For a championship website, which includes links for live scoring and an audio webcast, please click here.

The Whitman women's and men's teams sailed through the NWC dual meet season with 5-1 records. More information about the two teams follows below:

Whitman Men

The men's swim team has placed third at the championship meet in each of the past two years. It missed a second-place finish two years ago by a scant four points.

Bendix

Seniors Chris Bendix, Mitchell Lee and Matt Liedtke, along with juniors Paul Chang and Kevin Dyer, are returning swimmers who scored points for the Missionaries in the championship finals of last February's conference meet.

Chang was the runner-up in both breaststroke events and he added a fourth-place finish in the 200-yard individual medley.

Lee

Dyer, who has battled injury this season, was third a year ago in the 1,650-yard freestyle, fourth in the 200-yard freestyle and fifth in the 500-yard freestyle.

Lee logged a pair of fourth-place performances last year in the 100-yard freestyle and 100-yard breaststroke. He was fifth in the 50-yard freestyle.

Bendix made his best showings in the 1,650-yard freestyle (fourth) and 500-yard freestyle (seventh). Liedtke was seventh and eighth in the two butterfly races.

Sophomore Shunei Asao and junior Andrew Roehrig scored points in the consolation finals of the backstroke events last year, placing 11th and 12th, respectively, in both events. Asao added an 11th-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle.

Chang

Senior Ian Williams made the consolation finals in two events last year, placing 14th in the 1,650-yard freestyle and 15th in the 200-yard backstroke. Sophomore Colin Orr capped his freshman season by placing 15th in the 200-yard breaststroke.

Two newcomers, junior transfer Galen Sollom-Brotherton and freshman Karl Mering, should give the men's team a big scoring boost this weekend.

Sollom-Brotherton has posted this season's top NWC times in both the 1,650-yard freestyle and 400-yard individual medley. Of possible entries at this weekend's meet, he ranks third in the 200-yard freestyle and fifth in the 500-yard freestyle.

Sollom-Brotherton

Mering has this season's top times in the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle races as well as the 100-yard butterfly. His time in the 200-yard butterfly is just 11 one-hundredths of a second off the top time.

Nic Win and Kevin O'Leary are two more freshmen to watch this weekend.

Of possible entries in the 100-yard backstroke, Win has this season's fifth-best time while O'Leary sits in seventh. In the 200-yard backstroke, O'Leary has the eighth-best time with Win in 10th.

Mering

Win also has the eighth-best time among possible entries in the 400-yard individual medley (IM), and he ranks 11th among the 200-yard IM possibilities. O'Leary has the 11th-best time among entries in the 200-yard freestyle.

Senior Matt Rowett, who missed the conference championships last season while on off-campus study, has the 12th-best time on the list of possible entries in the 400-yard IM.

In the relays, the Whitman men have clocked the best times this season in both the 200-yard and 400-yard freestyles.

The Missionary men rank second in both the 200-yard and 400-yard medley relays, and third in the 800-yard freestyle relay.

Whitman Women

The women's team finished third at the NWC championships three years ago and then was edged into fourth the past two years -- each time by a single point in the scoring column.

Chapman

Junior Katie Chapman wrote some team history a year ago, becoming the first Whitman swimmer to win three individual events (200-yard individual medley, 200-yard butterfly, 100-yard butterfly) at the championship meet while earning Female Swimmer of the Meet honors.

Collins

Sophomore Claire Collins had a memorable first trip to the championships a year ago, placing second in both breaststroke events. Her best time this season in the 400-yard individual medley places her 10th among the possible entries this weekend.

Junior Helen Jenne is back after placing sixth last year in the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle races. She also was 12th in the 200-yard freestyle.

Of possible entries in this weekend's meet, Jenne has this season's best time at the 100-yard freestyle distance. She ranks fourth at both 50 and 200 yards.

Jenne

Junior Genay Pilarowski joins Collins as one of the favorites in the breaststroke events. She placed fourth and 10th a year ago, but her times this season place her second at 200 yards and third at 100 yards in the pecking order for this weekend.

Sophomore Mel Notari gives Whitman a second strong swimmer (along with Chapman) in the butterfly events. Notari was fifth at 200 yards and seventh at 100 yards at last year's championship meet.

Pilarowski

Junior Charlotte Graham is another returning veteran in the freestyle races. She made her best showing last year in the 200-yard freestyle, placing fifth. She added a ninth-place finish in the 500-yard freestyle.

Sophomore Keller Hawkins is Whitman's best in the backstroke events. She placed fifth and seventh a year ago in those two races, and she finished 12th in the 50-yard freestyle as well.

Sophomore Ellen Banks is back after scoring points last year in the consolation finals of 50-yard, 100-yard and 200-yard freestyle races. Her best finish was 13th at 50 yards.

Jay

Look for Ashley Jay, one of Whitman's first-year swimmers, to make an impact in the distance freestyle events. Of this weekend's possible entries, Jay's times place her sixth at 1,650 yards, seventh at 500 yards and ninth at 200 yards.

Jay also has a strong time in the 400-yard individual medley, where she ranks 12th among the possible entries for this weekend.

In the relays, the Whitman women have clocked the third-best times this season in four of the five events.

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CONTACT: Dave Holden
Sports Information Director
Whitman College, Walla Walla, Wash.
holden@whitman.edu; (509) 527-5902