FEDERAL WAY, Wash. – It was a bountiful day for Linfield University on Saturday at the Northwest Conference Swimming Championships.
 
Two Wildcats – Kate Walkup and Ben Simpson – won their first individual league championships and the Linfield men locked down a third relay title in as many days, prevailing in the 200-yard freestyle relay.
 
With 301 team points, the Linfield women moved to fourth place in the championship standings, trailing Whitman (411), Pacific Lutheran (341) and Whitworth (326). Linfield's men remained in third place with 358.5 points, behind front-runners Whitworth (474.5) and Whitman (366).
 
MEN
Establishing a new school record in the 200-yard freestyle relay, the foursome of Garrett Sutton, Daisuke Fitial, Simpson and Edan Donaldson clocked 1:22.51, surpassing the old record of 1:23.08 set in 2020. The Wildcats held off Whitworth by .27 of a second to win the championship. The Pirates had entered the race with the fastest seed time.
 
Simpson outdueled Donaldson in an exciting 100 butterfly event. Simpson out-tapped his friend and teammate at the wall by .16 of a second, 49.43 to 49.59.
 
Fitial and Donaldson were also among the top finishers in the 100 backstroke. Fitial was second, posting a new school-record time of 49.41, just fractions of a second ahead of Donaldson, who reached the wall in 49.79. Both Wildcats registered NCAA provisional 'B' qualifying marks. Fitial's effort eclipsed the 2018 record of 49.74 set by Neirton Oliveira.
 
Colby Evenson contributed 15 team points with a fourth-place effort in the 400 IM. He clocked 4:14.87, improving on his season-best of 4:18.19.
 
WOMEN
Walkup held off a late surge by Whitman's Bella White to win the 400 individual medley. Her time of 4:30.70 was nearly a five-second improvement over her preliminary time and came within .41 seconds of breaking the Linfield record. It also scored the junior a NCAA provisional 'B' qualifying time to the national championship meet.
 
In the 200 freestyle, Claudia Velie registered a season-best time of 1:58.47, earning fifth place. In the 100 breaststroke, Whitney Averill claimed 11^th place (1:08.49) and Annelise Hed was 13^th (1:09.05).
 
Avery Campbell turned in a fifth-place result in the 100 backstroke, clocking 58.96 seconds.
 
In the 200 freestyle relay, the quartet of Lauren Bobo-Shisler, Avery Campbell, Maggie Kelley and Molly Shields earned valuable team  points with a fourth-place result. Their time of 1:38.93 cut more than two seconds off their previous best effort.
 
NEXT
Racing continues Sunday morning with preliminaries starting at 9:30 a.m. followed by championship finals at 4 p.m.