Both the Whitman men’s and women’s swim teams placed second at the Northwest Invitational meet on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 at Linfield College. The meet reflected the strong season the team has had so far.
“Our season has been both challenging and exciting,” said Coach Jenn Blomme in an e-mail. “We’ve suffered a few setbacks through illness and injury, but we have a phenomenal group of people with a lot of heart on this team.”
A large group of first-year swimmers has increased Whitman’s competitive abilities at dual meets, said Blomme.
“Claire Noone is currently ranked fourth in our conference in the 200-yard breaststroke,” said Blomme. “On the men’s team, Jamie Nusse is fifth in the 200-yard freestyle and Nick Wood is eighth in the 200-breaststroke.
Junior Noel Sollom-Brotherton is returning to swimming after a year’s break, and is second in the mile and in the top 12 of his other events.”
Senior Erin Pettersen, the women’s team captain, said Whitman’s strong showing at the Northwest Invitational boded well for the rest of the season.
“Northwest Invitational is good preparation for the final championship meet in February,” said Pettersen. “We get a chance to swim against all the Northwest Conference teams: our meets are usually dual meets against one other school.”
This year, the format of the Northwest Invitational has been changed. The swimmers swam preliminaries on Friday and Saturday mornings, and finals in the evenings. Every swimmer swam three events in the preliminaries.
“It’s nice to be able to choose your events,” said Pettersen. “Unlike in dual meets, teams don’t have to have swimmers in every event. Dual meets don’t necessarily have the best line-up for the team. Because people are choosing what events to swim, almost everyone drops times at Conference meets.”
The Invitational came at a difficult time, right after Thanksgiving Break and a difficult loss to PLU on Nov. 17.
“One of the biggest challenges is finding a balance,” said Pettersen. “This is academically the worst time for a meet. You have to keep your head in the meet and not get too stressed out about homework.”
The swimmers’ hard work paid off at the meet, placing second at the Invite: the women scored 594 points after Lewis & Clark’s 810, while the men trailed PLU’s 610 with 579 points. This is the highest finish the men’s team has had at this meet in recent years.
“It was great to beat Linfield,” said sophomore Eric Molnar. “They’re one of the strongest men’s teams in the conference.”
“The men’s team has doubled in size since last season, so it’s a fairly young team,” said sophomore George Stanton. “I don’t think we’ve reached our full potential yet: we’re just going to keep getting better and better.”
“We’re typically the most spirited team at Conference,” said Pettersen. “Our team stands out because we’re so connected. It’s a long and time-consuming season, but the team really comes together.”
Blomme hopes that the strength and depth the team has developed so far will achieve some high expectations.
“We have tremendous potential on the team this year, but we are also up against a really tough conference,” she said. “Other teams have also improved and we are going to have our work cut out for us at each and every meet. We hope to maintain our dominance, but that won’t come without a lot of hard work!”
Blomme also hopes to qualify some Whitman swimmers for the NCAA national meet in March, which would be the first time Whitman has attended Nationals since the college joined the NCAA.
