The King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, Wash. hosts the likes of the U.S. Swimming Olympic trials and the NCAA National Championships. However, this past Valentine’s Day weekend, the King County Aquatic Center hosted a slate of Northwest Conference swimmers at the NWC Championships, including our very own Whitman swim team. The meet came to a close the evening of Sunday, Feb. 14 with Whitworth University coming out on top, followed by the University of Puget Sound, on both the men’s and women’s sides. The Whitman men had an opportunity to close in on second but ultimately fell to third by only four points. The Missionary women faced an even more disappointing result, as they came in fourth behind Lewis & Clark College by a mere point.
Despite not taking second, the men showed glimpses of magic as first-year Kevin Dyer lived up to his new moniker, phenom. In the first night of preliminaries, Dyer set a new school record for the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:42.42. He never finished below fourth place in any of the events he swam. In Sunday night’s grueling 1650-yard freestyle final, Dyer placed second with a time of 16:46.21, twenty-four seconds faster than his season-best.
“He is a hard worker who deserves all the success in the world. Certainly, he will be a big part of our program in the coming years,” Head Coach Jenn Blomme said about Dyer’s contributions this season and future to come.
Fellow freestyler sophomore Chris Bendix clocked a time of 16:55.91 in the same race, and for the second year in a row, came in third. Despite the same result, Bendix noted a significant difference in both NWC championsips he swam in.
“This was the most tactically planned meet I have ever been in. Each coach planned each race around each swimmer to try to get as many points as possible and it ended up being an incredibly close and exciting meet because of it,” Bendix said. “All the teams brought their A-games and it was incredible to watch.”
The points continued to pile on with the help of junior Jamie Nusse. On the final night, Nusse finished third in the 100-yard freestyle checking in at 47.20. Nusse also led the 400-yard freestyle relay team, the last event of the evening, to decide the second-place team. Leading sophomores Mitchell Lee and Matt Rowett, and first-year Paul Chang, Nusse and company were given an opportunity to hold onto their one point second-place lead over the University of Puget Sound. Unfortunately, their time of 3:11.14 was just good enough for third: almost two seconds short of the Loggers who came in second, outscoring Whitman 34-32.
On the women’s side, first-year swimmers also keyed their success. First-year Katie Chapman led the Whitman women, coming in second in the 200-yard fly and third in the 100-yard fly. Fellow first-year, Charlotte Graham also had an outstanding Championships, as she finished third, fourth and sixth in the 200-yard freestyle, 100-yard freestyle and the 200-yard intermedley race, respectively.
On the first night of preliminary action, the women’s 200-yard freestyle relay team, who have been swimming well all season, out-did themselves as they broke their previous school record with a time of 1:41.21. The relay team was led by junior captain Lauren Flynn, with first-year Helen Jenne, Chapman and Graham rounding off the group.
This past season, the Whitman swim team has enjoyed tremendous success and much of their inspiration comes surprisingly from themselves. Despite the inherent individuality of the sport, Whitman swimmers have united as a team to push each other to be the best swimmers possible.
Bendix said that Whitman’s team is what motivated him to swim so well at the conference championships.
“Swimming is a team sport despite the fact that the actual races are very individual. Without the team behind the lanes, cheering and screaming waving flags, no one swims as fast,” he said.
This tremendous sense of team unity can only be fostered with the hard of work of good coaching. This particular year, after all the swimming was done, Blomme was rewarded for all her hard work, as she was named NWC Men’s Swimming Coach of the Year. This is the first time she has received this distinction in 10 years of coaching at Whitman. Previously, she has earned this honor on the women’s side twice, in 2005 and 2006.
Blomme was quick to write off her success, attributing it to the fantastic performances of her swimmers.
“There is nothing more meaningful than an honor awarded by your peers.” Blomme said. “But in the end, the award is really for the men’s team whose efforts and desire have resulted in incredible accomplishments for our team.”
This is a huge coaching victory for Blomme, who, only five years ago, had six swimmers on her men’s roster. Currently 22 men are on the Whitman roster.
Blomme has benefited from the tremendous success of her teams in the past two seasons. The men posted a record of 7-1 overall, 6-1 NWC and the women went 6-2, 5-2 NWC, both the last two seasons. One of the men’s victories this season included a thrilling upset over NWC powerhouse, University of Puget Sound.
Unsurprisingly, Blomme is optimistic about the swim program’s future.
“The team’s primary job for the next few weeks is to rest and recover from the heavy workload of the season. Then we’ll start setting our sights on next year. With 2nd- and 3rd-place finishes at the championships so close within our reach, we are more motivated than ever to improve.”
