TACOMA, Wash. - The Pacific Lutheran University men's and women's swimming teams are heading to eastern Washington to resume the Northwest Conference dual meet slate with showdowns against the Whits. The Lutes head to Walla Walla on Friday night to face Whitman College before heading to Spokane on Saturday to take on Whitworth University.
 
The Lute men and women resume NWC competition with identical 3-0 dual meet records in conference duals while finishing sixth and fourth respectively at the Logger Invitational back on Dec. 2. The Lutes are looking forward to a competitive weekend against some tough conference foes and the team's intense winter training could be just the boost they needed. 
 
"Our team has had a really good attitude this whole season which has provided a great training atmosphere for training hard," said senior Taylor Bingea. "We have had some really tough workouts with our winter training, but the team stepped up and performed really well. Coming off an intense bout of workouts, our team is looking very strong in the water and is ready to compete against some of our best competitors in the conference. This weekend will be a close dual for us and will give us good competition."

On the men's side, Elijah Singstad shared his perspective on the team thus far.
 
"The team has been training very hard this season in both the water and the weight room. This will set us up very nicely for a fast conference championship meet just around the corner. On this team, we aren't necessarily preparing ourselves to swim to the best of our abilities this weekend; our focus is on conference championships and we won't ease up on the level of intensity we have in practice every day. We hope to see fast swims this weekend, but we do not expect to see them since we will be very broken down from all of our practices."
 
We also talked with our Lute student-athletes about their favorite part of being on the team.
 
"My favorite part about being on the team is all the relationships I have made" said Bingea. "The team has become a family to me and I've made lifelong friendships."
 
Singstad echoed a similar tune, "My favorite part about being on this team is the chemistry we have. Everyone gets along really well and we all have lots of fun at practices and swim meets."