By Robert McKinney, Assistant Athletics Director, Communications

FEDERAL WAY, Wash. -- The Willamette University men's 200-yard medley relay team earned sixth place in the first event of the 2024 Northwest Conference Swimming Championships on Thursday, Feb. 8 at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center. The opening session of the NWC Championships included men's and women's competition in the 200-yard medley relay and the 800-yard freestyle relay.

Swimming for the Bearcats during the men's 200 medley relay were William LaDuca (So., Salem, OR/South Salem HS) on backstroke, Logan Copeland (Sr., Sparks, NV/Spanish Springs HS) on breaststroke, Cole Lindberg (Jr., Moses Lake, WA/Moses Lake Christian Academy) on butterfly, and Julius Wilhelmi (Sr., Roseville, CA/Woodcreek HS) on freestyle. Willamette finished with a time of 1:36.25, just .03 away from Pacific Lutheran University in fifth place at 1:36.22.

The University of Puget Sound won the men's 200-yard medley relay in 1:32.79. Willamette held off George Fox University, which took seventh place at 1:36.48. The Bruins touched out .23 behind the Bearcats.

Also on Thursday, Willamette placed seventh in the men's 800-yard freestyle relay. Willamette's time of 7:11.67 was created by Nicholas Moore (Fy., Moses Lake, WA/Moses Lake HS), Kevin Olmedo (So., La Canada, CA/St. Francis HS), Ethan Davies (So., Hong Kong/Discovery College), and LaDuca. Whitworth University won the 800-yard freestyle relay with a time of 6:50.29.

Leading the men's team standings after the two events was Whitworth with 74 points. Puget Sound was second with 70 points and Linfield University was tied with Whitman College for third place with 64 points. Pacific Lutheran held fifth place, while Willamette and Lewis & Clark College were tied for sixth place with 50 points. George Fox was eighth with 46 points, and Pacific University was ninth with 36 points.

The NWC Swimming Championships will continue through Sunday, Feb. 11. On Friday and Saturday, the prelims will begin at 9:30 a.m. (PST) with the finals at 5 p.m. On Sunday, the prelims will start at 9:30 a.m. and the finals will get underway at 4 p.m. The 1,650-yard freestyle events will be held on Sunday in between the main sessions.