By Giancarlo Santoro, Sports Writer
The Pacific Lutheran University swim teams kept their unbeaten records intact after dominating performances saw the men win 166-32 and the women win 158.5-46.5 against Linfield last Friday.
Coming off of two wins against Pacific and Lewis & Clark the previous weekend, both the PLU men and women improved their record to 4-0 overall and 3-0 in NWC. Linfield men and women fell to 0-3.
“I think they [the PLU swim teams] showed really well, being as tired and beat up as they have been all week,” PLU head coach Matt Sellman said. “We had some really tough races and I don’t think I could be more pleased with how they did, considering how hard I pushed them in training.”
Picking up where they left off from last weekend, senior Kina Ackerman and sophomore Hanna Armstrong both put up strong performances and ended the night with three event victories apiece.
Ackerman won all three of her solo events, finishing with top times in the 200 breaststroke (2:33:60), the 200 butterfly (2:20:28) and the 1000 freestyle (11:11:88). In addition to helping win the 400 freestyle relay, Armstrong also swept her solo events, winning the 200 (1:58:88) and 500 freestyle (5:23:54).
Fatigue did not seem to be an issue for the men’s team either. First-year Joseph Bowley led the men with three event victories, sandwiching a win in the 200-yard freestyle (1:50:54) between wins in the 400 medley relay and the 400 freestyle relay.
“It’s cool to have our team doing this good so early in the season,” junior Rachel Althauser said. “We are all sore because we had a tough week at practice, but the team is really cohesive right now and everyone is working hard.”
