WALLA WALLA, Wash.  Whitman's women's swim team scored a start to finish victory Saturday over visiting Pacific Lutheran University, but the Blues men were dealt a narrow five-point defeat by the Lutes on Senior Day at Harvey Pool.

With their 113-92 win the women ended a PLU dual-meet win streak of 27. The Lutes were picked first, with Whitman second, in the preseason Northwest Conference coaches' poll.

On the men's side of the ledger Saturday, the teams traded the lead four times through the middle of the event schedule until PLU extended its advantage in the last three individual events to take -- despite Whitman's victory in the final relay -- a 105-100 win from the Blues.

The opening event, a 200-yard medley relay, launched the Whitman women as the start-to-finish victory included that relay as well as the meet-ending 200 freestyle relay.

Of 11 events, the Blues hit the touch pad first eight times.

Tara Stahlecker, in her final home meet, claimed two of those wins herself, and led off the free relay in the final event. Her time of 2 minutes, 0.21 seconds captured the 200 free early in the meet, and she won the 100 free midway through with a time of 54.85 seconds.

Also posting a trio of wins was Mara Selznick. The sophomore, a 2017 NCAA qualifier, led off the winning medley relay, swam the third leg on the free relay, and in between those events won the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:00.45.

Sarah Davidson once again put on an iron-woman effort. In Friday's win over Puget Sound she won the 1,000 free, stepped back up on the blocks of the next event, the 200 free and finished second, then closed out her evening by winning the 500 free.

Saturday against PLU she won the 1,650 free in 18:22.12, was back up for the 200 in which she finished third in Whitman's 1-2-3 sweep, then added another 500 free win, equaling her winning time Friday (5:25.98) with a time of 5:25.77 against the Lutes.

Newcomer Zoë Hill continued a noteworthy first season in the program as she won the 50 free (25.18), finished second in the 100 butterfly (1:01.69) and anchored the winning free relay.

One of the unsung heroes on the day for the Blues was Gaby Thomas. The junior freestyler anchored the winning medley relay, trailed only Stahlecker in finishing second in the 200 free, and added a third-place finish in the 100 free.

And not to be lost in the shuffle of a 21-point victory was Becca Hoffman's breaststroke efforts. She swam the breaststroke leg on the medley relay, but it was her battle for third place (1:10.72) in the last individual event, the 100 breaststroke, that prevented a 1-2-3 sweep by the Lutes in the event.

In fourth place after the first 50 the sophomore chased down one PLU swimmer and nearly got another, finishing just 5/10s of a second back.

Pacific Lutheran opened the men's meet with wins in the medley relay and 1,650, but Clark Sun won back to back events by taking the 200 free (1:49.19) and 50 free (22.08) while the Blues picked up more points from Fisher Munro, who was second in the 200, and Noah Schlenk and Jonah Rodewald, third and fourth, in the 50.

Keith Nussbaum led the way in the next event, the 400 individual medley, with Teddy Larkin (fourth) and Kieran Lenssen (fifth) chipping in points for the Blues.

Whitman led after the 50 and used the IM results to build a small cushion.

The Lutes stole back the lead after the 100 fly, only to have the Blues wrest it away with the 100 free results. Jared Sears won the race with a time of 48.33 with Schlenk adding third-place points.

The 100 backstroke points won by PLU exchanged the lead again, and this time for good.

Lucas Bergeson won the 500 free for Whitman, but the Lutes swept the next four places to inch their advantage forward. A seven-point margin doubled after the breaststroke race, leaving Whitman in a tight spot heading into the free relay.

Trailing by 14 points it not only needed to take first and second with its "A" and "B" relays, but also had to hope for a disqualification by the Lutes to prevent them from chalking up the two third-place points.

It was a good plan, but PLU snuck its "A" quartet between Whitman's winning and third-place foursomes to ice the narrow victory.

Schlenk, Colin Aslett, Sears and Bergeson teamed up to win the relay with a time of 1:28.34.

Head coach Jennifer Blomme was pleased at the day's outcomes, noting the doubles of Sarah Davidson and Sun, and the tough line-up for Abbey Felley -- 1,650 (fourth), 400 IM (fourth) and 500 free (fourth).

"Our swimming was great today," said Blomme. "There was a lot of intensity and competitiveness."

Of the women's meet, Blomme noted "the confidence the women displayed right out of the gates. We stayed composed when PLU would have a great event or two, and kept pushing the whole way. Especially through the final relay.

"This was a really significant win today."

She remarked that the men certainly put their best efforts forward, but "we couldn't compensate for their strength in the stroke events.

"If we could go back and do it over again, maybe we could have scraped up a point or two more here or there, and maybe that changes the outcome. But that's not how sports work. We'll just take what we learned here and apply it to our training this week."

Overall Blomme was excited about the whole aspects of the day. "The most fun thing, win or lose, is swimming such a close meet. Where every point matters, and every swimmer knows every point matters.

"And coaches are making last minute changes to line-ups, and the whole place is cheering like crazy for a close race at the end of a mile!

"It was a good sports day."

The exuberance of the day's ending was conflicted by the bittersweet beginning, when Blomme, her staff, and the attending fans bid farewell to a graduating class.

Racing their final races at Harvey Pool were Katie Davidson, Paige Dempsey, Maddy Gyongyosi and Stahlecker for the women's team, and Alex Lee, Nussbaum, Schlenk, Sears and Sun for the men's team.

The women seniors helped their team win its first NWC championship last winter, and the departing seniors on the men's team claimed a second NWC crown last winter, adding to their first title won in 2015.

The seniors and their teammates will close out the regular season Saturday at Whitworth University.