Lewis & Clark Earns Swimming Wins versus Willamette

By Robert McKinney, Athletics Communications Director, (503) 370-6110

PORTLAND, ORE. -- Lewis & Clark College defeated Willamette University in Northwest Conference swimming on Saturday, Jan. 21 on the L&C campus. The Pioneers won the men's competition, 148-50, and also outscored the Bearcats in the men's events, 120-72.

Sean Piper (Fr., Normandy Park, WA/John F. Kennedy HS) of Willamette won two individual events and swam the opening leg of the men's 200-yard medley relay, which the Bearcats won.

Piper took first place in the 400-yard individual medley with a time of 4:32.99. Trevor Schapiro of L&C claimed second in 4:41.21. Piper won the 100-yard backstroke in 56.59 seconds. He was victorious by more than five seconds over River Poze of the Pioneers, who placed second in 1:01.95.

WU prevailed in the 200-yard medley relay with an overall time of 1:46.65.

The Bearcats won the split times for all four legs of the relay. After Piper completed the first leg, the relay switched to Chris Whitehead (So., Sherwood, OR/Sherwood HS), followed by Zander Le Bel (Fr., Dallas, TX/Richardson HS) and Marshall Balderston (Fr., Eugene, OR/Marist Catholic HS). Lewis & Clark placed second in 1:49.52.

The Willamette men also received a first place result from Whitehead, who won the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:07.80. Second place went to Evan Damon of L&C with a time of 1:09.04.

Hope Nelson (Fr., Providence, R.I./South Kingstown HS) from the WU women's team won the 1,000-yard freestyle by achieving a time of 12:07.32. Nelson, a versatile swimmer in the freestyle races, placed second in the 100-yard freestyle at 58.99 seconds. She finished less than a second behind the winner, Monica Castro of L&C, who won in 58.01 seconds.

The Bearcats received several other solid performances during the meet.

For the men's team, Ian McGahan (Jr., Tacoma, WA/Stadium HS) took second in the 100-yard butterfly and the 500-yard freestyle. His time in the 100 butterfly was 1:04.55 and his result in the 500 free was 5:55.20. Alex Burkhart (Fr., Los Gatos, CA/Los Gatos HS) achieved second place in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 54.28 and narrowly missed second in the 200-yard freestyle.

Burkhart's time in the 200 free was 1:57.71, just 0.05 behind Seven Carreno from Lewis & Clark, who took second in 1:57.66. The winner of the 200 free was Poze at 1:55.77.

Erin Parkinson (So., Everson, WA/Ferndale HS) of WU placed second in the women's 500-yard freestyle, as she registered a time of 5:36.18. Taylor Coiner from L&C won the race in 5:32.64.

Parkinson took third in the 100-yard breaststroke at 1:14.48, missing second place by 0.39 seconds. L&C earned first and second in the event, with Alli Rotunno winning in 1:12.87 and Katy Yeh clocking in at 1:14.09 to hold off Parkinson.

Lewis & Clark won both of the women's relays. The Pioneers attained a time of 2:00.22 in the 200-yard medley relay. L&C took first place in the 200-yard freestyle relay in 1:47.11

Multiple individual event winners for the Pioneers were Castro, Kayla Ernewein and Ali Brauer from the women's team, as well as Schapiro and Noah Boring from the men's team.

Castro, in addition to edging out Nelson in the 100-yard freestyle, also won the 200-yard freestyle at 2:03.61. Ernewein claimed victory in the 50-yard free style in 25.82 seconds and the 100-yard butterfly in 1:02.93. Brauer took first in the 400-yard individual medley in 5:01.10 and won the 100-yard backstroke in 1:02.93.

Boring achieved first place in the sprints, winning the 50-yard freestyle at 22.69 seconds and the 100-yard freestyle at 50.45 seconds. Schapiro won the distance races, claiming first place in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:19.87 and finishing first in the 1,000-yard freestyle at 10:45.41.

Willamette will conclude the dual meet portion of its schedule with a home meet against rival Linfield College on Saturday, Jan. 28. The action will get underway at the WU Natatorium starting at 1 p.m. (PST). The Bearcats will honor senior Laura Coddington (Seaside, OR/Seaside HS) as part of Senior Day activities.