To put it plainly, Whitman swimming dominated at their conference championships, which took place from Feb. 13-15.  

The team finished an impressive third place for the first time since 1987 and smashed multiple school and personal records.

“We set a lot of school records, and were really competitive with Whitworth and UPS,” said senior co-captain Ysbrand Nusse.  

Whitworth won with 736 points, and the University of Puget Sound placed second with 675.5 points. Whitman earned 561 points, almost 200 more than the fourth-place team, Pacific Lutheran.  

“The conference meet this year was one of the fastest ever, and lots of our times this year would have been fast enough to win in previous years,” said Nusse.  

In total, the swim team broke 10 school records.  

Individuals broke seven school records: sophomore Chad Trexler beat the school record in the 200-yard breaststroke by over three seconds; first-year Chris Bendix broke the 1,000-yard freestyle record and   dropped nearly 15 seconds off the 1,650-yard record;   sophomore Lauren Flynn broke both the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle records, and sophomore Jamie Nusse broke the 500-yard freestyle record; senior Sollom-Brotherton broke his previous 200-yard backstroke record and met the provisional qualifying time for the NCAA Div. III national championships, though it most likely will not meet the standards for acceptance into the national meet. Sollom-Brotherton also broke the school record in the 500-yard freestyle, but sophomore Nusse posted a faster time and consequently claimed the record.

The men’s relay teams broke three school records: sophomore Nusse, along with freshman Mitchell Lee and seniors Ysbrand Nusse and Noel Sollom-Brotherton broke the 400-yard freestyle record; seniors Nusse and Sollom-Brotherton, junior Eric Molnar, and sophomore Nusse broke the 800-yard freestyle record; Sollom-Brotherton, Lee, and the Nusse brothers broke the 200-yard freestyle relay.

“We owe the incredible results to great preparation,” said head swim coach Jenn Blomme. “This season of preparation allowed our swimmers to go into the meet physically and mentally confident.”

The swim team trains from September to February. During training, Whitman swimmers often spend upwards of 15 hours in the pool per week along with weight lifting. Their hard work paid off at the Conference Championships.  

“We had been focusing on Conference for the whole season,” said Nusse. “We’ve been racing each other in practice, pushing each other in the weight room, and cheering each other on at meets.”  

Conference is the swim team’s one large meet of the season. According to sophomore Lauren Flynn, nerves are on edge both leading up to and during the meet.

“There is a certain amount of anxiety going into [Conference],” she said. “My friends had to remind me to ‘keep in the box.'”

“For me, [Conference] is always really surreal, because you’re like, ‘I’m here after all this,” said sophomore swimmer Brian Wakefield.

The wide range of new records attests to the depth and strength of the swim team. Both the men’s and women’s teams have few upperclassmen, but the “swim team love” permeates throughout.

“I always say that we swim each race together whether we’re in the pool or not,” said Blomme. “Every single one of our accomplishments…is a team effort.”