By Robert McKinney, Assistant Athletics Director, Communications

McMINNVILLE, Ore. -- Cole Lindberg (Jr., Moses Lake, WA/Moses Lake Christian Academy) of Willamette University placed seventh in the men's sprint pentathlon and was in the top 14 in all five races, during the Northwest Conference Sprints at Linfield University on Saturday, Oct. 28. Lindberg's overall time was 2:41.24 for the 100-yard individual medley and 50-yard sprints in the butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle.

In the men's team competition, Willamette placed fourth with 71 points. The University of Puget Sound won the men's team title with 353.3 points. Linfield was second at 309.5 and George Fox University placed third with 131 points.

Lindberg's top event was the 50-yard butterfly, as he took second place in 23.87 seconds. Edan Donaldson of Linfield won the 50 fly in 23.25 seconds. Lindberg finished sixth in the 50-yard backstroke in 26.15 seconds, and was eighth in the 100-yard individual medley with a time of 57.52 seconds. Lindberg was 12th in the 50-yard freestyle at 23.45 seconds, and he placed 14th in the 50-yard breaststroke in 30.25 seconds.

"It was a second day of racing and the men's team continued to show great effort at today's meet," Willamette Director of Swimming Brent Summers said. "We finished with two Bearcats in the top 20 while still missing two of our top sprinters. We learned how to swim fast with some built-up fatigue. We'll continue to work on dialing in some technical aspects in preparation for our upcoming dual meet with Pacific Lutheran University."

Logan Copeland (Sr., Sparks, NV/Spanish Springs HS) of WU placed 20th in the men's pentathlon and William LaDuca (So., Salem, OR/South Salem HS) was 26th. Copeland's combined time was 2:50.44 and LaDuca achieved an overall time of 2:52.69.

Copeland was eighth in the 50-yard breaststroke with a time of 29.95 seconds and was 17th in the 50-yard freestyle in 23.74 seconds. LaDuca placed 17th in the 50-yard backstroke at 28.44 seconds.

Joining Lindberg among the top 25 finishers in the 100-yard individual medley were Nicholas Moore (Fy., Moses Lake, WA/Moses Lake HS) in 22nd place at 1:00.25 and Copeland in 23rd place at 1:00.46. In the 50-yard butterfly, Lindberg's second place result was followed up by Nicholas Moore (Fy., Moses Lake, WA/Moses Lake HS) in 23rd place with a time of 26.43 seconds. The sixth place time by Lindberg in the 50-yard backstroke led the way for LaDuca's 17th place finish and Moore's 24th place time of 28.95 seconds.

The eighth place by Copeland in the 50 breaststroke was followed by three other Bearcats in the top 25. Lindberg was 14th in 30.25 seconds and Ka'Olapa Masuko (Fy., Volcano, HI/Kamehameha Schools-Hawaii) was 15th in 30.60 seconds.  Laduca placed 22nd in 30.95 seconds.

Lindberg's 12th place time in the 50-yard freestyle helped WU place four swimmers in the top 25 in the event. Copeland was 17th at 23.74 seconds, LaDuca was 22nd in 24.21 seconds, and Ethan Davies (So., Hong Kong/Discovery College) finished 23rd in 24.36 seconds.

Willamette will compete at Pacific Lutheran in a Northwest Conference dual meet on Friday, Nov. 3. Meet time in Tacoma, Washington, is slated for 6 p.m. PDT.