Fall Semester Athletics, February 2016

Winter sports have worked toward the halfway point of their seasons, with the men's and women's basketball teams and the men's and women's swim teams achieving high levels of success.

Men's basketball rang off nine consecutive wins to open its season, and as of mid-January, the team had posted an 11-2 record, climbing to number 25 in the D3hoops.com national poll and 12 in the HERO Sports online rankings. Tim Howell '18 paces the offense with a Northwest Conference-leading 18.2 points-per-game average.

Women's basketball is matching those successes with an 11-1 record that has the team two spots shy of the D3hoops.com top 25 and at number 40 in the HERO Sports poll. Casey Poe '18 is putting together a stellar second campaign, leading the Whitman attack with a 12.5 scoring average. League statistics see the women atop several categories, including field-goal percentage, rebounding margin, offensive rebounds per game, scoring defense and assist-to-turnover ratio.

The men's swim team—reigning NWC champions—has broken out to a 4-0 record within the league and finished third at the 2015 Simon Fraser International Clan Cup in December 2015. Clark Sun '18 was voted men's student-athlete of the week in November.

The women's team has opened the conference slate with a 2-2 mark, but with the addition of a couple of key performers this semester who were studying abroad, chasing down at least another second-place finish looks positive.

Prior to the start of the winter season a pair of traditional spring sports notched noteworthy results during their non-traditional fall schedule. Men's tennis captured the singles (Zach Hewlin '18) and doubles (Hewlin and Phillip Locklear '16) titles at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association 2015 Northwest Regional Championship hosted by Whitman. Hewlin is a repeat winner in singles, having also captured the 2014 crown.

Women's tennis reeled off a solid weekend at its ITA NW Regional with Jenna Dobrin '16, Lori Sheng '19 and Lindsey Brodeck '18 extending their stays within the regional the longest. Dobrin played her way into the semifinal round of the singles championship draw before bowing out, and first year Sheng bounced back from an opening-round loss to battle back and win the championship consolation draw. Brodeck slipped out of the singles championship draw in the second round but rebounded, playing her way into the championship match of the consolation-2 bracket.