By Robert McKinney, Assistant Athletics Director, Communications

PORTLAND, Ore. -- The Willamette University women's swimming team tied for first place at the Northwest Conference Relays on Friday, Oct. 27 at Lewis & Clark College. During the meet, Willamette earned wins in the women's 300-yard backstroke relay and the women's 300-yard medley relay.

Willamette and the University of Puget Sound tied for lead in the final women's team standings with 178 points, while George Fox University was third with 164 points. Lewis & Clark placed fourth at 154 points and Pacific University was fifth with 146 points.

"A big congratulations to our women's team for taking first place in a tie with Puget Sound," Willamette Director of Swimming Brent Summers said. "The women's team swam a very good meet against deep competition from our conference. The effort shown tonight has me excited about tomorrow's NWC Sprints and the rest of the season."

In the women's 300-yard backstroke relay, Willamette's winning time was 3:13.58 for a margin of victory of 11.36 seconds. Swimming for the Bearcats were Tatum Good (Jr., Scottsdale, AZ/Scottsdale Prep Academy), Emma Schauble (Fy., Portland, OR/Prospect Ridge Academy HS),  and Leah Howell (Fy., Bremerton, WA/Central Kitsap HS). Puget Sound placed second in 3:24.94.

Willamette registered a time of 3:13.98 to take first place in the women's 300-yard medley relay. Competing for WU's winning team were Tessa Ciatti (Fy., Bellingham, WA/Squalicum HS), Howell, and Alayna Kisiday (Jr., Silverdale, WA/Central Kitsap HS). Lewis & Clark claimed second place in 3:18.52.

The WU women's team placed second in the 300-yard butterfly relay, and achieved third place in the 300-yard breaststroke relay and the 500-yard freestyle relay.

In the 300 butterfly relay, WU's team included Lydia Schmitt (Fy., Olympia, WA/North Thurston HS), Ava Reich (So., Reno, NV/Robert McQueen HS), and Ciatti. They finished second in 3:14.17.

During the 300 breaststroke relay, the Bearcats recorded a time of 3:43.76 for third place. Swimming in the breaststroke relay were Anna Hornbeck (Jr., Bend, OR/Bend HS), Jacqueline Hall (Jr., Bainbridge Island, WA/Bainbridge HS). Competing for Willamette in the 500 freestyle relay were Howell, Schmitt, Kisiday, and Ana Kaldy (Fy., South Beach, OR/Newport HS). They achieved third place in 5:06.02.

In addition, the Willamette women's and men's swimming teams combined to place second in the mixed 200-yard freestyle relay and took third place in the mixed 400-yard freestyle relay.

The mixed 200-yard freestyle relay team for Willamette included Hall and Ciatti from the women's team and Logan Copeland (Sr., Sparks, NV/Spanish Springs HS) and Ka'Olapa Masuko (Fy., Volcano, HI/Kamehameha Schools-Hawaii) from the men's team. They finished the race with an overall time of 1:40.39 for second place. Puget Sound won the event at 1:36.20.

Willamette was third in the mixed 400-yard freestyle relay in 3:44.16. Swimming on the relay team were Schmitt and Hall from the women's team as well as Nicholas Moore (Fy., Moses Lake, WA/Moses Lake HS) and Ethan Davies (So., Hong Kong/Discovery College) from the men's team. The Puget Sound Loggers took first place in the mixed 400 free relay in 3:38.97.

The Bearcats will swim again on Saturday, Oct. 28 at the NWC Sprints in McMinnville, Oregon. The meet, hosted this year by Linfield University, is set to start at 10 a.m. PDT.