TACOMA, Wash. – Facing its stiffest test of the dual meet season, the Pacific Lutheran University women's swimming team passed with flying colors on Saturday afternoon at the PLU Pool, blowing past four-time defending Northwest Conference Champion Whitman College 118-87.
"It was a great start to the season with some strong racing," said PLU Head Coach
Matt Sellman. "We just love to compete and to race hard. We had some really impressive efforts over the weekend. I'm super excited to get two wins against some really good teams."
The Lutes dominated right from the start, winning the first six events contested and eight of 11 overall.
Annika Eisele,
Isabella Valles,
Bailey Hamilton and
Sidney Chan-Orcutt provided a sign of things to come as they won the 200-yard medley relay by over five seconds (1:52.00) to begin the day.
Malia Wisham dominated the afternoon, winning the 1,000 freestyle (11:16.31), 400 individual medley (4:46.33) and 500 freestyle (5:18.16). The sophomore won the 1,000 by 10 seconds, the 400 IM by eight seconds and the 500 free by an astounding 21 seconds.
Jessica Ordaz was victorious in a pair individual races. The sophomore cruised to a six second victory in the 200 free (1:58.52) and touched the wall first in the 50 free (24.69). She also recorded a runner-up finish in the 100 free (54.39).
Hamilton and sophomore
Annika Eisele also took home individual first-place finishes. Hamilton won the 100 butterfly (1:01.55) and Eisele was the top finisher in the 100 back (1:02.61).
With the victory, the Lutes extended their dual meet winning streak to 21 and will look to push it to 23 next weekend. PLU will head to Linfield University on Friday and Lewis & Clark College on Saturday.
