FEDERAL WAY, Wash.  Whitman's women's swim team capped off the opening day of the 2018 Northwest Conference Swimming Championship meet with a win in the final event to solidify their spot at the top of the team standings, while the men positioned themselves within striking distance of the leaders with their third-place spot on the team leaderboard at the culmination of the opening two sessions at the King County Aquatic Center.

With the Blues women's victory by the quartet of Mara Selznick, Becca Hoffman, Katie Davidson and Tara Stahlecker in the 400-yard medley relay, Whitman ended day one of the three-day meet with 176 points to take a nine-point edge on second-place Pacific Lutheran University's 167.5 points.

The evening finals session opened with an initial relay victory for Whitman as Zoë Hill, Melia Matthews, Gaby Thomas and Stahlecker teamed up to win the 200 freestyle relay in a time of 1 minute, 36.81 seconds, edging out the PLU relay by 0.08 seconds.

Soon after that win, Sarah Davidson dived into the blue waters of the Aquatic Center and broke her own team record in the 500 freestyle, finishing third in the championship heat in a new Whitman record time of 5:08.36. Right behind her was Abbey Felley (fourth, 5:13.14) who continued her remarkable opening day -- dropping 18 seconds from her best in-season time during the prelims session -- by trimming two more seconds off her morning swim. Adding to Whitman's point total from the event was Leah Petrini (13th, 5:23.97), who had entered the meet seeded 19th, with her season best in the 500 consolation heat.

Another Whitman record fell in the next event as Mara Selznick finished fourth in the 200 individual medley with a Blues record time of 2:09.12. Stahlecker (2:14.93) added an eighth-place finish.

The first conference champion for Whitman climbed out of the pool after the next event as first-year Hill captured the 50 free title with a time of 23.98 seconds. The 50 free title was the second in a row for Whitman after Tai Hallstein won the event last winter in a championship meet and league record time (23.31).

Hill wasn't alone in the fastest race in the meet. Teammate Gaby Thomas (24.58) finished fifth, while Matthews (25.54) ended up 16th, to spur the Blues along right before the final relay.

Whitman's men picked up their top performance of the evening from senior Clark Sun. The senior freestyler also broke his own team record, posting a time of 20.63 seconds -- and surpassing the NCAA championship meet 'B' standard -- with his second-place finish in the 50 free.

Clark was on the team's opening relay in the 200 free relay event, helping Jonah Rodewald, Noah Schlenk and Jared Sears to a second-place finish (1:23.66).

Lucas Bergeson cut two seconds off his morning qualifying swim to finish 14th in the 500 free with a time of 4:49.70, prior to the 200 IM in which four Blues registered important points for Whitman.

Three swimmers -- Rodewald, Fisher Munro and Keith Nussbaum -- earned spots in the championship final, with Kieran Lenssen picking up points in the consolation heat.

Rodewald (1:56.02) finished sixth, Munro (1:57.53) was seventh, Nussbaum (1:58.00) was eighth, and Lenssen (2:00.72) was 16th in the IM.

Adding points to Sun's from his championship heat swim in the 50 were Sears (ninth, 21.22), Schlenk (13th, 21.80) and Colin Aslett (16th, 22.01).

Whitman's men's medley relay, comprised of Aslett, Lenssen, Munro and Sun, closed the Saturday-night session with a third-place swim. Sun anchored the relay and came from behind in the final yard to out touch the PLU anchor by 1/100th of a second. Whitman posted a time of 3:28.08.

The Blues men totaled 137 points for the night, trailing leader Whitworth University (188) and second-place Linfield (151).

Head coach Jennifer Blomme was pleased with how her charges opened the championship meet. "I'm feeling awesome about our performances tonight," she exclaimed. "We had so many best times, and a few school records.

"We knew the team scores were going to be tight, so there were no surprises there. But we're feeling really proud to have the women on top at the end of the day."

Day 2 of the meet begins Saturday at 10 a.m., with the evening session of championship and consolation finals starting at 6 p.m.

Preliminaries Recap
The opening session of the 2018 Northwest Conference Swimming Championship is complete, with the defending champion Whitman men and women getting off to fast starts Friday in the King County Aquatic Center pool.

The morning session included the preliminary heats of the 500-yard freestyle, 200 individual medley, and the 50 freestyle. The fastest eight swimmers from the prelims return in the evening for the championship heat, while the next eight return to battle for places ninth through 16th in the consolation final, which always precedes the championship heat.

Sarah Davidson, Abbey Felley and Leah Petrini ignited the Blues women with season bests in the 500 free. Davidson, expected to be among the top swimmers in the event, dropped five seconds from her previous best to finish the morning in third with a time of 5 minutes, 12.58 seconds.

Felley had a monster drop of 18 seconds, moving up nine spots from her original seed time to earn a spot in the championship final with a time of 5:15.62. Also registering a huge drop was Petrini (5:24.97) who will enter the evening consols with the 12th-fastest time after dropping 12 seconds from her 19th-seeded pre-meet spot.

Just missing out on the consol heat was Maddy Gyongyosi (5:29.86) who cut nine seconds from her season best in finishing 18th, only three seconds away from a consols spot.

The Whitman men earned a spot in the evening consols with Lucas Bergeson's seven-second drop (4:51.88) for a 14th-place finish. Teammate Alex Izbiky cut 14 seconds from his seed time to finish 19th, three spots away from a consols berth.

The women pushed two swimmers into the championship heat of the 200 IM -- Mara Selznick (third, 2:09.59) and Tara Stahlecker (fifth, 2:11.46).

Though Miranda Williams (2:18.10) slashed eight seconds off her seed time, the first-year just missed an evening spot by finishing 18th and less than one second out of the final consolation position.

Also heartbreakingly close were teammates Becca Hoffman (20th, 2:18.95) and Erin Tyler (21st, 2:19.28) who, despite best times, missed the chance to come back in the evening by less than two seconds.

The men positioned themselves to rack up a ton of points in their 200 IM, placing three into the championship heat and one into the consols.

Jonah Rodewald (fourth, 1:55.57) leads Fisher Munro (sixth, 1:56.82) and Keith Nussbaum (eighth, 1:57.64) into the champs heat, with Kieran Lenssen (15th, 2:00.29) preceding them in the consols. The quartet dropped between four and eight seconds from their seed times.

The top seed in the women's 50 free final at night will be the Blues' Zoë Hill. The first-year posted the second-fastest time in Whitman history by touching the pad in 23.86 seconds. The Whitman record is 23.31 set last season by NCAA All-American Tai Hallstein.

Also in the champs heat in the evening will be Gaby Thomas (tie-fourth, 24.43), who trimmed more than a half second off her previous best.

Melia Matthews (15th, 25.09) improved one spot from her seed time, earning a consols swim with a 0.40 second drop from her entry time.

The 50 always produces 'just missed' swims and Whitman's Jill Low (19th, 25.13) and Jessica Luong (21st, 25.22) joined that group, as the last spot in the consols was garnered by a swimmer who posted a time of 25.10 seconds.

The Blues men advanced four swimmers into the evening session in the 50.

Clark Sun cruised to a second-place finish in the prelims with a season-best time of 20.79.

Making it back for the consolation final will be Jared Sears (ninth, 21.42), Noah Schlenk (13th, 21.72) and Colin Aslett (tie-14th, 21.73).

The evening session opens at 6 p.m. with the timed final heats of the 200 free relays -- of which Whitman's women's and men's entries own the top seed -- followed by the consolation and championship heats of the 500, 200 IM and 50. The session concludes with the 400 medley relay.