NEWBERG, Ore. --- The Pacific Lutheran University Men's Swimming team closed out the 2024 portion of their winter season on Sunday, taking second of four teams in the annual Bruin Invitational hosted by the George Fox Bruins.
 
In the large two-day event, the Lutes faced off against a trio of Northwest Conference schools in Pacific, Willamette, and the host, George Fox.
 
In the first event of the weekend, the Men's 200-yard Freestyle Relay, the PLU got off to a hot start, as Tyler Tanaka, Ben Thompson, Na'inoa Loo, and Dakota Domingo took first with a time of 1:28.65 to open the meet with 40 team points. The fastest lap for the relay squad came from Domingo who anchored a 21.48-second time to give the Lutes a narrow victory.
 
Sophomore Dylan Dang, Loo, and Tanaka then finished second, third, and fourth, in the 100-yard Butterfly, only trailing one swimmer from Willamette. Freshman Christian Georgi made a statement for himself in his first Bruin Invite, taking home the crown in the 200-yard Breaststroke with a time of 2:08.35, beating out the next best time by over four-seconds.
 
In the 200-yard Backstroke, Georgi repeated with yet another victory for his second of the day and the Lutes third of the meet. Fellow freshman Domingo showed off his speed in the 100-yard Freestyle sprint, racing a time of 48.82 in route to victory. Tanaka kept the winning streak alive for PLU in the 200-yard IM, with over a two-second win.
 
The Lutes later capped off the opening half of the meet on Saturday the same way they began the meet, with a relay win. Loo, Tanaka, Dang, and Domingo ran a 3:36.37 to cap off the first eight races of the meet in the 400-yard Medley Relay. The Lutes took home the win in six of the first eight races, but sat in second behind the host Bruins as a team.
 
On Sunday morning, the Lutes returned to the Bruins pool with hopes for more race wins in their future. The men got right to work in the 200-yard Medley Relay, as the same squad that ended day one started off the final day of the meet and swam a time of 1:37.59 and came away with the win. Tanaka followed suit in the 400-Yard IM, earning another win with a 4:21.06, cruising past the rest of the field.
 
Domingo's streak of wins in the Freestyle events also maintained, winning the 50-yard sprint by over two-tenths of a second with a time of 22:06; though, Dang was the Lutes next-best finisher in seventh.
 
To close out the four-team meet, the Lutes saw a five-race skid, but still found a way to earn multiple podium finishes to cap off the meet. Gus Hertz, Tanaka, Loo, and Domingo took second in the final race of the weekend, the 400-yard Freestyle Relay, finishing nine-hundredths of a second behind the winning Bearcats team.
 
The multitude of wins early on in the meet and into day two gave the Lutes a second-place finish as a team, due to the depth of the Bruins team earning the meet victory. PLU finished with 721 team points, behind only George Fox (1,011), and ahead of Willamette (622) and Pacific (34).
 
"To put it simply, Magnificent!" said Head Coach Andrew Lum following the successful meet for PLU.
 
"The Lutes hard work, commitment to getting 1% better each day, and their infectious energy absolutely lit up the George Fox pool. We are so proud of how they continue to rally behind each other, and show up for every single moment."
 
"This weekend was full of surprises, and we look forward to their progression as we march towards conference!"
 
Tanaka was a huge part of five winning races, including two solo wins and a trio of wins as part of a relay team. Each Domingo and Georgi had two solo wins a-piece.
 
PLU Men's Swimming enjoys over a month away from competition as they return to the pool once again on Saturday, January 11^th, at the Linfield Wildcats.
 
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