Nov. 29, 2006

SWIMMING: Lutes Host 10-Team Northwest Invitational

THIS WEEK: Pacific Lutheran hosts the Northwest Invitational, Friday, 6 p.m. and Saturday, 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.

NORTHWEST INVITATIONAL: Pacific Lutheran hosts the 24th Annual Northwest Invitational this Friday and Saturday at the PLU Pool. The 10-team event, featuring eight Northwest Conference schools, gets underway at 6 p.m. Friday. There will be sessions at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Saturday. Each of the 20 women’s and 20 men’s events will be timed finals.

WHO WILL BE HERE: Eight of the nine Northwest Conference schools have swimming programs, and all will have swimmers in this meet. Those schools are PLU, Puget Sound, Whitworth, Whitman, Lewis & Clark, Linfield, Willamette and Pacific. Joining these eight will be Albertson College of Idaho and Cal State-East Bay from Hayward, Calif.

INVITATIONAL HISTORY: The Northwest Invitational actually got its start as the PLU Invitational back in 1983. PLU head coach Jim Johnson, now in his 29th year at the school, started the event as an alternative competition the same weekend as a large meet at the University of Washington. Over the years, the PLU Invitational has “morphed” into the Northwest Invitational and has been hosted by various schools. For instance, Lewis & Clark College hosted the event at its Portland, Ore., campus in 2005. In recent years, the meet has been held in such locations as Olympia, Ellensburg and McMinnville, Ore. The Northwest Invitational was last held at the PLU Pool in December 2004.

MORE HISTORY: Lewis & Clark broke a two-year string of PLU triumphs to take the championship in the women’s competition. Since 1999, a total of seven different schools – Puget Sound, Redlands, Whitworth, Linfield, Central Washington, PLU and Lewis & Clark – have won the women’s team title at the Northwest Invitational. Occidental College came north from Eagle Rock, Calif., to win the 2005 Northwest Invitational men’s championship, ending a two-year string of Linfield victories. Like the women’s division, the men’s competition has seen a wide range of team champions since 1999 – Puget sound, Seattle U., Whitworth, PLU, Linfield and Occidental.

LAST COMPETITION BEFORE WINTER BREAK: The Northwest Invitational serves as the final competition for the Lutes before the winter break. Students turn their attention to finals during the week of Dec. 11-15. Once the PLU swimmers return in early January, they resume their workouts in preparation for dual meets on Jan. 12 at Lewis & Clark and on Jan. 13 against Willamette at the PLU Pool.

- PLU -