Jones Earns Co-Outstanding Swimmer Award at NWC Meet

Third Day Results
Complete Meet Results

FEDERAL WAY, Wash. - The final day of Northwest Conference swimming championships was much like the first two for Jay Jones. The Pacific Lutheran sophomore won his third event, successfully defending his 200 butterfly title and also knocking off his third school record in the process.

Jones, a sophomore out of Mt. View High School in Vancouver, Wash., clocked 1:54.38 to take down the record of 1:55.43 set by John Shoup in 1986. That mark, like his winning times in the 200 and 400 individual medleys, was a NCAA Division III national meet provisional qualifying time. Swimming in a Sunday time trial, Jones also broke his own school record in the 100 butterfly, clocking 51.38.

As a result of his outstanding performance, Jones shared Outstanding Men's Swimmer of the Meet honors with Whitworth's Michael Woodward, who won the 100, 200 and 500 freestyles.  

Pacific Lutheran's teams both improved over last year's finish, the Lutes men placing fourth and the women moving up to fifth. "Overall we had an excellent meet," said PLU interim head coach Allison Kolp. "There was some amazing swimming done by the entire team."

The final men's team scores were Whitworth 736, Puget Sound 675.5, Whitman 561, Pacific Lutheran 364.5, Linfield 356, Pacific 197, Lewis & Clark 169, Willamette 136.

The final women's team scores were: Puget Sound 777, Whitworth 765, Lewis & Clark 456, Whitman 320.5, Pacific Lutheran 244, Linfield 241, Pacific 229.5, Willamette 162.

Whitworth won its seventh consecutive men's championship and the University of Puget Sound edged the Whitworth women to earn their 12th title overall as the three-day meet concluded on Sunday night at the King County Aquatic Center.

Natalie Turner of Whitworth is the Outstanding Women's Swimmer of the Meet for the third straight season after sweeping the 200, 500 and 1,650-yard freestyles, all in NWC record time.

The Pirate men won four of the six events on Sunday, including the 400-yard freestyle relay, to pull away from Puget Sound.

Woodward won perhaps the most anticipated race of the meet. He was facing off in the 100-yard freestyle against Dominic Rieniets, who had won the 50-yard free and 100-yard butterfly, both in record time, earlier in the meet. Woodward had won the 500 and 200-yard freestyles, both in record time. Woodward edged ahead of Rieniets over the final 15 yards to win in 45.76, while Rieniets touched in 45.94. Both were under the previous meet record time of 46.08 set by Rieniets last season.

Whitworth senior Tom Radtke won for the first time in his career when he pulled away midway through the 1,650-yard freestyle to win in 16:34.33. Rory Buck added a win for the Pirates in the 200-yard breaststroke, beating defending champion Paul Hughes of Puget Sound in a time of 2:04.41.

Buck and Woodward led the Whitworth men to a close win over UPS in the 400-yard freestyle relay in a new meet record time of 3:07.13, just ahead of the Loggers' mark of 3:07.90. Both were under the previous meet record time of 3:08.40 set by Whitworth in 2000.

Jackson Kowalski of UPS pulled away to win the 200-yard backstroke for the second straight season, with a winning time of 1:51.96.

The Puget Sound women returned to the top of the standings in 2008 after seeing their 11-year winning streak end last season. The Loggers used superior depth to unseat the Whitworth women by 12 points in one of the closest meets in NWC history.

Sierra Phillips was the only individual winner for UPS on Sunday, taking the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:25.08, but the Loggers put three or four swimmers into the championship finals of four of the five events on Sunday to out-point the Pirates.

Whitworth's Turner opened the night by winning the 1,650 freestyle in a new all-time record of 17:11.88, breaking the old mark of 17:14.37 she set at last season's NCAA Division III Championships. Christine DeHaven and Kara Fisher gave Whitworth a 1-2-3 finish in the event.

Pirate senior Brittany Gresset added to her victory total by winning the 100-yard freestyle for the third straight season with a meet record time of 52.20. Katie Barton of UPS was second in 53.25. Ashley Lecoq (2:07.29) gave Whitworth its third individual win of the night when she out-touched teammate Yasmeen Kheshgi (2:07.55) and Kelsey Elizondo (2:07.64) of UPS in the 200-yard butterfly. Lecoq won both butterfly events in the meet.

Likewise, Linfield's Rose Hollingsworth swept the backstroke events by stroking to a 2:05.03 in the 200-yard back. Her morning preliminary time of 2:04.81 was a new meet record.

Whitworth ran away with the women's 400-yard freestyle relay, partly in thanks to Turner, who broke Gresset's meet record in the 100-yard free while leading off the event with a split of 52.17. The Pirates' final time of 3:32.37 bettered the previous meet record of 3:33.97 set by Whitworth last season.

LUTE NOTES: Forrest Crain finished his conference meet with a fourth-place finish in the 200 backstroke, finishing in a time of 1:56.85. The freshman swam in the championship final in each of his three individual events. Alex Limoges placed seventh in the 200 back, clocking 2:00.95. On the women's side, Elizabeth Althauser finished seventh in the 1650 freestyle in a time of 18:57.74 and Casey Jackson was seventh in the 200 backstroke in a time of 2:14.60. They were the only two PLU women to swim in a championship final during the meet. A total of six PLU men and six women finished between ninth and 16th in their events on Sunday.

(Courtesy of Linfield Sports Information Office)