Bearcats Tie Pacific, Fall to College of Idaho, in Men's Swimming

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

FOREST GROVE, ORE. -- Willamette University swam against Pacific University and the College of Idaho in a non-conference meet on Saturday, Nov. 23 at Pacific. Competitors swam head-to-head in some events and against time in two or three heats in other events. The entire meet was scored as a double-dual with three sets of team scores.

In the men's competition, Willamette and Pacific tied 129.5 to 129.5, while the College of Idaho held off Willamette, 133-119, and downed Pacific, 135-114. The women's match-ups ended with the College of Idaho outscoring Willamette, 146-114, while Pacific downed Willamette, 177-80, and defeated the Lady Yotes, 158-102.

Alika Masei (Fr., Salem, OR/West Salem HS) had a great day for the Bearcats. He won three individual events and contributed to a Willamette victory in the 200-yard medley relay.

Masei and teammates Chris Whitehead (Sr., Sherwood, OR/Sherwood HS), Andrew Lum (So., Honolulu, HI/Punahou School) and Alex Guffey (So., Seattle, WA/Roosevelt HS) combined to win the 200-yard medley relay at the start of the men's events. The Bearcats achieved a time of 1:41.55 to edge out the College of Idaho by .04 for first place. The Coyotes took second in 1:41.59. Pacific was third in 1:43.70.

Later, Masei won the 100-yard backstroke, the 200-yard backstroke and the 200-yard individual medley. In the 100 back, he registered a time of 54.16 seconds to win by more than two seconds. In the 200 back, he prevailed in 1:59.82, as he bested the field by just under four seconds.

Masei's winning time in the 200 I.M. was 2:03.04. He won by exactly one second over Michael Hargitt from Pacific. Hargitt finished at 2:04.04, just .01 in front of Corbin Cooper from C of I, who earned third place in 2:04.05.

Also for the Willamette men's team, Guffey placed second in two events and Shelby Merrill (Fr., Thousand Oaks, CA/Westlake HS) won one event.

Guffey achieved second place in the 100-yard freestyle in 49.45 seconds and was second in the 200-yard freestyle in 1:49.50. He missed first place in the 100 free by 0.76, with Cooper winning the event in 48.69 seconds.

Merrill was second in the 1,000-yard freestyle, which he completed in 10:38.81. He also recorded a third place finish in the 500-yard freestyle, as he attained a time of 5:12.94.

In the men's 200-yard freestyle relay, the Bearcats took second place behind the Coyotes, but finished in front of the Boxers to earn a tie in the overall scoring between Willamette and Pacific. C of I took first place in 1:30.42 and Willamette followed in second at 1:32.72. Pacific placed third in 1:34.48.

Swimming for the Bearcats in the 200 free relay were Zander Le Bel (Jr., Dallas, TX/Richardson HS), Lum, Merrill and Guffey.

Hope Nelson (Jr., Providence, RI/South Kingstown HS) and Erin Parkinson (Sr., Everson, WA/Ferndale HS) from the Willamette women's team each placed second in two events and achieved third place in one event.

Nelson earned second place in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:03.13 and also gained second place in the 100-yard freestyle in 56.52 seconds. The 100 free was won by Kirby Roberts from the College of Idaho in 56.12 seconds. Nelson finished third in the 500-yard freestyle at 5:32.52.

Parkinson swam to second place results in the 1,000-yard freestyle at 11:22.93 and in the 200-yard breaststroke at 2:40.58. She was third in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:13.29.

Willamette's women placed first in the 200-yard medley relay. Pacific swam exhibition in the event, but did not beat WU's official winning time. The Bearcats clocked in at 1:43.51, and the College of Idaho was a close second after completing the race in 1:43.86.

The 200 medley relay team for Willamette included Nelson, Parkinson, Lindsay Clark (So., Juneau, AK/Juneau-Douglas HS) and Malia Santos (So., Kailua-Kona, HI/Kealakehe HS).