FEDERAL WAY, Wash.  Whitman's men's and women's swim teams came out of Day 2 of the Northwest Conference 2018 Swimming Championship just as they started -- in first place on the women's team leaderboard, and in third on the men's -- but there was oh, so much more to the day than just maintaining their spots.

Start with the finish: in the evening's final event the Blues walked away with first-place finishes in the 800-yard freestyle relay, setting a new team record in the women's victory and moving back into third place with the men's win.

Top seed Puget Sound positioned its fastest two swimmers in the first two spots of the 4x200-yard race, and the ploy gained the Loggers the advantage over the Blues' Mara Selznick and Sarah Davidson, and the rest of the women's field.

Whitman's third swimmer, Abbey Felley, had something to say about that three-second deficit, though. She cruised past the UPS swimmer just before the 150-yd. mark of her leg, handing anchor Tara Stahlecker a two-second advantage over the Loggers.

Stahlecker added to Whitman's lead, eventually pushing it to four seconds over now-runner-up Linfield.

The Blues' final time of 7 minutes, 44.65 seconds -- breaking the old Whitman record by three seconds -- was four seconds ahead of Linfield and five ahead of UPS at the pads.

Whitman's men broke in front of their 800 free relay with Clark Sun, the 200 free champion from earlier in the evening, leading off. He handed Lucas Bergeson a one-second lead which got whittled away a bit by Linfield's second swimmer.

A virtual tie when each team's third swimmer took over, the Blues' Fisher Munro handled the challenge by earning back that one-second advantage and serving it up for anchor Jared Sears. Linfield's fastest anchored their quartet but Sears fought off the Wildcats' Neirton Oliveira to close the night off with a victory, lifting Whitman from a nine-point deficit behind then-third-place Pacific Lutheran, into a five point lead over PLU for the third-place battle.

The Blues captured the men's 800 in a time of 6:55.61, edging out Linfield by 0.18 seconds.

The evening finals session began the way it ended for the Whitman women, with a relay win.

The quartet of Mara Selznick, Becca Hoffman, Katie Davidson and Zoë Hill led from Selznick's first stroke to take the 200 medley relay with a winning time of 1:46.06.

Felley was next on the blocks for her team, teaming up with Maddy Gyongyosi in the championship heat of the 400 individual medley (IM). Felley, having a monster meet for the Blues, finished fourth with a time of 4:43.69 while Gyongyosi (4:47.58) was sixth.

The Whitman men, after a fourth-place in their 200 medley relay, added points in the IM from both the championship and consolation heats Saturday night.

Teddy Larkin went first in the consols, swimming to what would be 10th-place with a consolation heat time of 4:21.17. In the following championship heat, Keith Nussbaum (4:14.51) scored a fifth-place finish for his team.

Hill, Katie Davidson and Leah Petrini represented the women in the two evening heats of the 100 butterfly. Petrini improved two spots from her seed to finish the night 14th after posting a time of 1:01.56 in the consols.

Hill finished sixth in the championship final, posting a time of 58.45 seconds that is now the sixth fastest all-time in Whitman history. Katie Davidson (59.64) earned eighth-place points for Whitman.

Munro (51.90) was the lone Blues swimmer in the men's 100 butterfly heats, improving one place from his morning seed spot to finish sixth in the championship heat.

Whitman new coming into the weekend that the next event, the 200 free, had a lot of potential -- for both teams. And the results didn't disappoint.

The women had three of the eight swimmers in the championship final, following Melia Matthews' 13th-place swim in the consol heat.

Stahlecker set a personal best with her second-place time of 1:55.16, a clocking that ranks fourth all time on Whitman's list. Sarah Davidson (1:57.36) added a fifth place while Gaby Thomas (1:57.55) improved two spots from the prelims to finish in sixth.

What had been a precarious 9.5-point lead over second-place PLU going into the event, turned into a 39.5-pt. cushion afterward.

Bergeson kicked off the men's heats with a time of 1:47.53 in the consolation heat, a swim that would place him 15th overall.

That set the stage for Sun, who had posted an NCAA 'B' qualifying cut for the national championship meet with his prelim-winning swim in the morning. In the nighttime's championship final Sun led from starting horn to finishing touch, taking the event with a time of 1:40.16, more than 1.6 seconds ahead of the runner-up.

The breaststroke races that followed added points for Whitman, but PLU cut into the women's lead a bit with the results while the Whitman men inched a few more points ahead of fourth-place PLU.

Miranda Williams (1:06.38) and Hoffman (1:06.41) placed fifth and sixth, respectively in the championship final, just after Amanda Li posted a time of 1:09.13 in the consols to cement a 13th-place finish.

Like with the women, the men had two in the championship final and one in the consols. Noah Schlenk (1:00.39) finished 14th overall after his consolation heat swim, leading up to the championship heat that included Kieran Lenssen and Jonah Rodewald.

Lenssen finished third with a time of 57.88 seconds, with Rodewald (58.30) not far behind in sixth place.

The final individual event of the night provided Selznick with the opportunity to repeat at the 100 backstroke champion.

After Jill Low (1:02.35) moved up two spots into 13th with her consolation heat swim, it was time for Selznick to strut her stuff.

The early medley relay should have been an indicator as to how this race would go, as Selznick broke out of the water in first place after her start (again) and never looked back in posting a winning time of 56.31 seconds. Her prelims swim (56.81) had already earned an NCAA 'B' cut, and her evening swim inched the sophomore closer to the automatic 'A' cut (54.12).

Though Sears (10th, 53.33), Colin Aslett (11th, 54.06) and Larkin (14th, 55.60) earned points in the consolation heat of the backstroke, the Blues ceded third place to PLU -- until the 800 free relay hit the cool, blue water of the King County Aquatic Center.

Sunday marks the final day of the three-day championship meet. Whitman's women will enter the 10 a.m. prelims session with 414 points, PLU starts with 367.5 and UPS begins with 319 points.

Whitworth (465 pts.) leads the men's meet, with Linfield (351) in second, followed by Whitman (311) and PLU (306).

The evening championship and consols session will begin at 5 p.m. Sunday night.

Preliminaries Recap
Whitman men's and women's swim teams picked up steam on Day 2 of the Northwest Conference 2018 Swimming Championship at the King County Aquatic Center. Saturday's preliminary session saw 25 Blues advance into the evening's championship and consolation final heats -- including a trio who will step up as event top seeds.

Clark Sun was the first to post the fastest time in an event for Whitman, racing to the front of the pack in the 200-yard freestyle. His time of 1 minute, 39.81 seconds is a personal best, second all-time in the 200 at Whitman, and is a 'B' consideration cut for the NCAA swimming and diving championship meet.

The next event, the 100 breaststroke, brought about the second top-time posting.

First-year Miranda Williams entered the NWC meet seeded 10th, but will head into the event final Saturday night with the top time after posting a four-second drop to touch the pad at 1:05.96.

The 100 backstroke heats followed, and for the third time a Whitman swimmer ended the morning with the fastest time.

Mara Selznick, who qualified last season for the 2017 NCAA meet, led the first of the three circle-seeded heats to the finish, touching in 56.81 seconds which is also a national 'B' cut.

The morning, by event:

400 individual medley – Two Whitman women will swim in the championship heat Saturday night. Abbey Felley (4:44.50) posted the third-fastest time in the morning, while teammate Maddy Gyongyosi (seeded 10th coming into the prelims) moved up into the championship heat with a sixth-fastest time of 4:57.55. Erin Tyler (4:57.55) dropped seven seconds, but missed the consolation final by just 1.3 seconds.
Both of the men's entries, Keith Nussbaum and Teddy Larkin, advanced into the evening. Nussbaum (4:14.15) will swim in the championship heat with the fifth seed, and Larkin (10th, 4:23.83) will swim in the consolation final.

100 butterfly – Three women will swim again Saturday. Leah Petrini (16th, 1:01.87) squeezed into the consolation final, with Zoë Hill (59.33) and Katie Davidson (59.41) following in the championship final with the seventh and eighth seeds, respectively. The men advanced one swimmer into the evening as Fisher Munro earned a spot in the championship heat with a seventh-fastest swim of 51.79 seconds.

200 freestyle – Along with Sun earning the top seed for the evening, the Blues' Lucas Bergeson also earned a spot by touching in 1:46.93, the 15th-fastest time in the morning which places him in the consolation heat. The Whitman women stand to pick up a lot of points in the evening heats, qualifying four from the morning. Tara Stahlecker (second, 1:56.35), Sarah Davidson (third, 1:57.47) and Gaby Thomas (eighth, 1:58.27) will populate the championship heat, and Melia Matthews (15th, 2:02.22) will chase points for the Blues in the consol heat.

100 breaststroke – Williams won't be alone in the championship heat as teammate Becca Hoffman posted a personal best time (1:06.54) to earn the third seed. Amanda Li (12th, 1:08.74) also advanced into the evening and will swim in the consol final. Williams' time is the third fastest all-time at Whitman, and Hoffman's is the fifth fastest. In the men's preliminary heats, all three Whitman representatives advanced into the evening's scoring heats. Kieran Lenssen -- Whitman's record holder in the event -- will be Saturday night's third seed in the championship heat after he posted a time of 58.20 seconds. Jonah Rodewald (fifth, 58.49) will also swim in the scoring final, with Noah Schlenk (13th, 1:00.43) -- posting a career best and eighth fastest all-time for Whitman -- swimming in the consolation final.

100 backstroke – Selznick will have teammate Jill Low joining her in the evening. Low posted a career-best time of 1:02.28 (ninth all-time for Whitman) to earn the No. 15 seed and a spot in the consols. The Blues' men have three coming back in the event, all in the consolation final. Jared Sears (ninth, 52.80) beat his career best by more than a half second with the third fastest all-time swim for Whitman; Colin Aslett (11th, 53.74) jumps onto the all-time list at No. 5; and Larkin added a second event Saturday night with a 14th-fastest prelims time of 55.65. On the outside looking in, heartbreakingly so, is Thibault Collignon whose time of 56.50 missed out on the final spot in the consolation heat by 0.04 seconds.

Saturday evening's session begins at 6 p.m. with the women's and men's 200 medley relays, followed by the individual events from the morning prelims. The session closes with the 800 free relay. Whitman's women concluded Friday's finals session with the team lead at the meet, posting 176 points against Pacific Lutheran University's second-place total of 167.5. The Blues men finished Friday in third with 137 points, trailing Whitworth University (188) and Linfield College (151) in the team standings.