FEDERAL WAY, Wash. – Ryan Grady broke another Northwest Conference meet record and Emma Thompson won her first career individual event to highlight Saturday night's finals at the 2022 NWC Swimming Championships at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center.
The Pirate men extended their lead in the team standings, and the women moved up one spot into third place.
Grady went 54.85 in the men's 100-yard breaststroke to post an NCAA Division III qualifying mark and break the NWC meet record of 55.71 set by Linfield's Victor Brasil in 2015. Andrew Lambert followed in third place with a time of 57.00, while Alex Henderson was sixth in 57.87.
Whitworth opened the men's meet with a second place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay, setting a school record with a time of 1:22.78. Zachary Washburn, Finn McClone, Grady and Jacob Goguen broke the previous school mark of 1:23.76. Linfield won with a time of 1:22.51, just holding off the Pirates.
Washburn, McClone and Goguen picked up big points for the Pirates in the 200-yard freestyle, finishing second, third and fourth, respectively – all within two-tenths of a second of one another. Washburn went 1:40.11, McClone went 1:40.21 and Goguen finished in 1:40.27. Noah Clarke finished seventh (1:44.12) and Ryan Burch was eighth (1:47.09), giving Whitworth 71 points in the event. Whitman's Tanner Filion won in 1:37.98.
Isaiah Ross took third in the men's 100-yard butterfly with a time of 50.18. Linfield's Benjamin Simpson won in 49.43.
Jorgen Midboe was eighth in the men's 400-yard individual medley in 4:20.64. Puget Sound's Brett Kolb won in 4:08.53. Ty Patterson closed the night with a seventh-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke in 53.09. Whitman's Filion got his second win of the night with a time of 47.74.
Whitworth goes into the final day of the meet with a lead of more than 100 points in search of its fourth straight NWC title. The team scores are: Whitworth 474.5, Whitman 366, Linfield 358.5, Puget Sound 316, Pacific Lutheran 172, Lewis & Clark 165, George Fox 165, Willamette 149, Pacific (Ore.) 84.
Thompson won her first career individual event, posting a time of 56.34 in the 100 backstroke. She was just off her school record time of 56.14. Sarah Doncevic was 11th and Taylor Thorne 13th.
Thompson led off the 200 freestyle relay, which took second in 1:37.89 to PLU (1:36.86). Doncevic, Jillian Larrabee and Carly Hoff joined Thompson on that relay.
Larrabee was NWC runner-up in the 100 butterfly with a career-best time of 57.45. Ryann Reid was seventh in 59.72, while Doncevic was 10th, Isabel Fetty 13th and Zoe Morillo 14th. PLU's Jessica Ordaz won in 55.58, her second individual title of the meet.
Earlier in the night Reid took third in the 400 I.M. with a time of 4:38.68. Linfield's Kate Walkup won in 4:30.70.
Hoff finished fourth in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:57.11. PLU's Malia Wisham won in 1:53.62.
Ashtyn Petersen took sixth in the 100 breaststroke in 1:07.96. Willamette's Anna Hornbeck won in 1:05.11
The women's team scores through Saturday are: Whitman 411, Pacific Lutheran 341, Whitworth 326, Linfield 301, Puget Sound 240, George Fox 186, Lewis & Clark 137, Willamette 133, Pacific (Ore.) 123.
The meet concludes on Sunday. The scheduled events are the 1,650-yard freestyle, 200-yard backstroke, 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard breastroke, 200-yard butterfly and 400-yard freestyle relay.
