Whitman's Senior Swimmers Slated for Recognition at Friday Night BB Game

WALLA WALLA, Wash. -- Two weeks after winter storms forced cancellation of its last two home meets of the season, the Whitman College swim program will honors its seniors Friday night in Sherwood Center.

Tackman

Bendix

Recognition of 10 senior swimmers, slated originally for one of the meets that was cancelled, will take place instead Friday night at halftime of the men's basketball game between Whitman and Pacific Lutheran.

Friday's basketball action gets started at 6 p.m. with the Whitman-Pacific Lutheran women's game. The men's game follows at about 8 p.m.

The ten senior swimmers to be honored include captains Katie Tackman, Matt Rowett and Chris Bendix.

Other seniors on the women's team are Alyssa Bader, Monica Boshart, Sylvie Luiten and Lena Page. Rounding out the men's senior contingent are Mitchell Lee, Matt Liedtke and Ian Williams. 

Boshart

Rowett

The Whitman swim teams, which capped the regular season last Saturday by sweeping dual meet decisions from Puget Sound, are in final preparations for the Northwest Conference Championships, which are set for Feb. 10-12 at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, Wash.

"This group of seniors is very special to our team," says swim coach Jenn Blomme. 

"They have seen us through changes in our program and have provided tremendous leadership to their teammates.

"Regardless of what happens at the conference championships, the mark this group of seniors is leaving on Whitman swimming is already an incredible one."

Lee

Bader

Last Saturday's dual meet results marked the first time Whitman had swept both sides of a meet from Puget Sound since the Loggers joined the NWC in the late 1990s.

Both Whitman teams finished the conference dual meet season with 5-1 records, losing only to Whitworth. With their seniors leading the way, the Missionary squads are poised to cap the best season in school history at next week's NWC championships.

On the men's side, this year's seniors helped Whitman place third at the conference finals in each of the past three years. The Missionary men missed second place two years ago by just a few points.

Page

Liedtke

Meanwhile, seniors on the women's team helped the Missionaries place fourth at the championships for the last three years, missing third by one point in each of the last two years.

While the 2011-12 season is not yet over, this year's seniors leave behind a program that has broken more than two dozen school records over the last two years alone.

The graduating seniors have also contributed to impressive accomplishments on the academic side.

Both the men's and women's team have earned Scholar All-America honors in each of the past two years. Those honors, based on cumulative grade point averages, are given by the College Swimming Coaches Association of America.

Luiten

Williams

Two years ago, the men's team posted the second highest team grade point average at the NCAA Division III level. It moved up the nation's top academic spot last year.

This year's senior swim class represents a wide range of academic majors.

Majors for the women range from anthropology (Bader), chemistry (Boshart) and economics (Page) to politics-environmental studies (Luiten) and sociology-environmental studies (Tackman).

Majors for the men include Asian studies (Rowett), history (Williams) and philosophy (Bendix). Lee is majoring in chemistry while Liedtke is majoring in economics-mathematics.

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