Jan. 7, 2008

SWIMMING: Traveling Complete, Lutes Return to Home Pool

THIS WEEK: PLU hosts College of Idaho, Saturday, 1 p.m.

Jay Jones

Jessie Klauder

LUTES CLOSE DUAL SEASON IN HOME POOL: Traveling is done for the Pacific Lutheran swimmers this season as the Lutes close out the regular season with four home dual meets, all in January. College of Idaho, formerly Albertson College, will be in town Saturday for a non-conference dual scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. Going into the meet, the Lute men have a 3-1 dual meet record while the PLU women are 3-3 overall. The PLU men and women defeated the Coyotes last season in Caldwell, the men winning 122-48 and the women winning 135-56. The previous year, the Coyotes’ first as a collegiate program, the host Lutes swept the duals with the men winning 83-71 and the women winning 132-44. Pacific Lutheran closes the dual season with three Northwest Conference contests – Jan. 18 against Lewis & Clark, Jan. 19 against Whitworth and Jan. 26 against Willamette.

PLU TO HOST NWC CHAMPIONSHIPS: Pacific Lutheran will serve as the host school for this year’s Northwest Conference Swimming Championships scheduled for Friday through Sunday, Feb. 8-10, at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way.

JONES NAMED NWC SWIMMER OF THE WEEK: Jay Jones continued his remarkable freshman season by winning the 100 and 200 butterfly events at the CLU Winter Invitational held Wednesday, Jan. 2, at Cal Lutheran University. As a result, Jones earned Northwest Conference Swimmer of the Week honors.

CLU WINTER INVITATIONAL WRAP: Jay Jones won the 200 butterfly in a time of 2:04.31 and then came back later in the meet to win the 100 butterfly with a time of 53.28. Jones also placed fifth in the 100 breaststroke (1:03.39) and fourth in the non-scoring 400 individual medley (4:27.24). Junior Andy Stetzler had a solid performance for the Lutes, finishing second in the 200 freestyle (1:49.53) and the 500 freestyle (4:56.86) and fifth in the 100 freestyle (50.03). Alex Limoges placed fourth in the 200 backstroke (2:07.77) and Trevor Olson was fifth in the 50 freestyle (22.45). On the women’s side, freshman Jessie Klauder placed third in the 100 freestyle (56.94) and fourth in the 200 freestyle (2:01.36) in addition to placing fifth in the non-scoring 400 individual medley (5:03.02). Casey Jackson finished third in the 200 backstroke (2:20.24) and fourth in the 100 backstroke (1:05.52). The Lutes finished last out of five teams in both divisions. On the women's side, UC Santa Cruz scored 679 points followed by Whitworth with 498.5, Cal Lutheran with 290.5, Fresno Pacific with 233 and PLU with 191. On the men's side, UC Santa Cruz scored 673 points, followed by Whitworth with 417, Fresno Pacific with 345.5, Cal Lutheran with 257.5 and PLU with 237.

THE COACH: Jim Johnson, now in his 30th season as Pacific Lutheran University head coach, has the most wins of any swim coach in Northwest Conference history. He achieved a milestone in his PLU coaching career on Nov. 12, 2005, when the Lutes defeated Pacific, giving Johnson his 300th career victory at PLU. He has a cumulative 323-244 dual meet record at PLU.

PLU SEASON BEST TIMES: http://www.plu.edu/athletics/swim/best%20times.html.

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