Nov. 21, 2006

Swimmers Compete Well Against Stiff Competition

This Week: The Lutes have a break from competition this week. Their next competition is the Northwest Conference Invitational on December 1 & 2.

Mixed Results: The PLU women’s swim team came away this weekend with two big wins over NWC foes. The lady Lutes pulled off a narrow 105-100 victory over Linfield and swamped Pacific 142-52. The men’s team couldn’t complete the sweep as Linfield beat them 134-71, while the Lutes topped Pacific 121-46 on Saturday. In the Linfield meet the men’s team had three event winners. Andy Stetzler won the 1000 freestyle in a time of 10:29.75, Luke Weinbrecht took the 50 freestyle in a time of 23.63, and Jason Hesla powered to a victory in the 100 breaststroke in a time of 1:02.93. On the women’s side the freshman duo of Jessie Donovan and Mica Bailey led the way by winning four events between the them. Donovan won the 100 backstroke (1:00.51) and the 200 freestyle (2:05.12). Bailey won both freestyle sprints, taking the 50 in 25.65 and the 100 in 56.40. In the Pacific meet it came down numbers and PLU proved too much for the visiting Boxers to handle. With only three men and six women on the Pacific roster the Lutes were able to control the meet with six different event winners on the women’s side and three on the men’s. Both the men’s and women’s team improved their overall record to 2-1.

NWC Honors Donovan: Freshman Jessie Donovan was named the Swimmer of the week by the Northwest Conference after leading the Lutes over both Linfield and Pacific. Donovan won three events over the weekend, including a season best in the 100 backstroke (1:00.51). Her time in the event is the seventh fastest 100 backstroke ever recorded by a PLU woman swimmer. She currently has the fastest times in the conference in the 50, 100 and 200 backstroke.

Bye Week: The bye week should help the Lutes as they prepare for the Northwest Conference Invitational, which will be hosted by PLU on Dec. 1-2. The meet will pit some of the top teams in the Northwest Conference, plus a couple of non-conference schools, against each other.

- PLU -