TACOMA, Wash.  The opening weekend of the Northwest Conference swim season concluded Saturday with the NWC Relays, hosted by Pacific Lutheran University.

Whitman started its afternoon off with a bang, rolling out a winning quartet in the 200-yard Mixed Medley Relay. Mara Selznick on backstroke, Kieran Lenssen on breaststroke, Zoë Hill on butterfly and Clark Sun at the freestyle anchor position raced out to a 1.7 second victory, posting a winning time of 1 minute, 45.18 seconds.

The meet progressed through the rest of its event schedule alternating women's and men's relays -- with a mixed 200 freestyle relay interjected -- until concluding with a mixed 400 freestyle relay.

Following Friday evening's NWC Sprint Pentathlon, which comprised of short, individual events, Whitman head coach Jennifer Blomme was looking for different things from her team during the relays.

"One of my main priorities for the team today was to really get into racing mode, and we did so much of that," said Blomme. "There were a so many moments where we had the opportunity to catch up from behind or hold off someone trying to catch us. And we swam really confidently in those moments."

Among the other highlights of the meet for the Blues were second-place finishes in the 300-yard women's backstroke relay, the 200-yard mixed free relay, the men's 300-yard medley relay and the mixed 400 free relay.

Selznick -- coming off an appearance last winter at the NCAA Division III championship meet -- was also on the women's backstroke and mixed 400 free relays, while Hill joined her on the mixed 400 free relay and swam on the mixed 200 free relay as well.

Tara Stahlecker and Abbey Felley teamed with Selznick on the backstroke runner-up finish, and Gaby Thomas was on the mixed 200 free relay quartet.

Sun added to his mixed medley relay victory by anchoring both of the mixed free relays, while Jonah Rodewald was on the men's medley relay and the mixed 400 free relay.

Fisher Munro and Keith Nussbaum were also on the men's medley, and first-year Colin Aslett was part of the mixed 200 free foursome.

Blomme, voted the men's and women's NWC coach of the year last season, is definitely looking forward to the upcoming season. "I'm excited to see what we can do with some more training and refinement of mechanics."

Whitman leaps out of one NWC pool into another for its next competitions. The Blues open league dual-meet season Friday night at Willamette University, then dive into Wildcat waters at Linfield College on Saturday for another conference dual.