Results

SPOKANE, Wash. - Kaycee Simpson won three events, including swimming a leg of the decisive 200-yard freestyle relay as the Pacific Lutheran University women's swimming team outlasted Whitworth University 109-96 in a Northwest Conference dual on Saturday afternoon.

"Holy cow, what a great meet," said Head Coach Matt Sellman. "It's rare that a meet goes down to the last five yards, but this one did. The women showed incredible toughness and attitude in the meet and it made the difference in any number of races that we won by a great finish. That shows how much heart we have and we'll remember this for a long time."

"Great to see our senior Sydney Bishoff lead off that last relay and set the tone for a huge win. I'm very proud of this team and what they showed today."

PLU won six of the 11 events contested, none more important than that final 200-free relay with Bishoff, Victoria Nguyenle, Simpson, and Alex Shannon touching the wall in one minute, 42.82 seconds, to wrap up the dual meet win.

The Lutes opened the meet with a win in the 200-yard medley relay with Kiyomi Kishaba, Whitney Mundle, Bailey Hamilton, and Lauren Kearney touching the wall a split hair faster than the host Pirates, clocking a time of 1:51.59.

Nguyenle bested the field in the 200-yard freestyle, winning in 2:03.16 while Simpson claimed her first event win of the day in the 400-yard individual medley, touching the wall in 4:44.83, owning a nearly eight second advantage on the rest of the competition. Simpson was at it again in the 100-yard butterfly, touching the wall in 1:00.44 while Kearney was the top finisher in the 100-yard freestyle (56.60).

Logging second place finishes was Taylor Bingea in the 1,650-yard freestyle, Kearney in the 50-yard freestyle (25.76), Kishaba in the 100-yard backstroke (1:00.66), Nguyenle in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:08.50)

The Lutes are back in the pool on Friday, hosting Linfield College at 6 p.m.