The weekend of Feb. 14 marked the end of another successful season for the Puget Sound swim teams.
The women’s team came in fifth overall and the men’s took third. The three-day meet was in Federal Way, Wash. The men’s team won five of their 10 dual meets this year and the women won four. The impressive performance at conference followed the loss at home to Pacific Lutheran University on Feb. 1. Logger swimming had a strong run in November when the women’s team had a three-week long winning streak and the men won four meets in a row.
This meet is the chance for individuals and teams to perform their best as the competition between teams and teammates pushes them to swim at their best times. “Conference is always the funnest meet of the year and the one we perform the best at,” sophomore Auri Clark (Juneau, Alaska) said. “Its awesome seeing everyone’s training and hard work that has been put into the last five months pay off at the last meet.” The weekend started strong for the Loggers when senior Derek Frenzel (Moscow, Idaho) finished first in the 500 free. He swam an impressive 4:32.45, which was fast enough to break a record set in 1978.
Melissa Norrish (Denver, Colo.) also won the 500 free. She swam the third fastest time a Logger-woman has swum the event in, touching the wall at 5:00.34. The 500 free would not be Norrish’s only–or biggest–achievement of the weekend.Norrish ended the weekend earning the honor of Female Swimmer of the Year.
On Sunday Feb. 16 she won the 200 yard butterfly. Norrish also won the 400 individual medley, placing a meet record time of 4:30.91. The Loggers swam strong relays throughout the weekend.
On the first day of the weekend the men’s 200 yard freestyle relay came in second place with a time of 1:04.23.
On Saturday the men earned 40 points when they won the 800 free relay.
The relay was composed of Teale Kitson (Durango, Colo.), Clayton Jacobson (Newport, Ore.), Jared Frisk (Elko, Nev.) and Frenzel.
They took home an easy victory with a 6:54.12, four seconds faster than the second place team.
The women’s 400 free relay swam a tough race and came in third, only three seconds behind the first place team.
Clark and Norrish swam with senior Caitlin Fuller (Sherman Oaks, Calif.) and junior Tess Krimmer (Ojai, Calif.) to bring 32 more points to the women’s overall score.
The women finished the weekend with a total of 348.5 points and the men scored 535.
This weekend marks the end of the regular season but some swimmers have the chance to compete in the National College Athletic Association, NCAA, tournament in March.
Norrish bested the NCAA B cut time with her 500 free win and Frenzel and Kitson both swam NCAA B qualifying marks. The NCAA tournament will take place Mar. 19 through Mar. 22 in Indianapolis.
This successful season continues the long stretch of good seasons for both Puget Sound Swim teams.
Norrish, being only a freshman, was granted conference honors.
There is no telling how successful our team is going to be in the future being that we have so many talented freshman such as Norrish competing for hopefully the next four years.
