FEDERAL WAY, Wash. – Action got underway Thursday night, though not as anyone would have expected, as four relay events led off the 2025 Northwest Conference Swimming Championships here at Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatics Center.
 
Linfield is among nine institutions scheduled to compete at the annual championship event, however three NWC teams from the Portland area – George Fox, Pacific and Lewis & Clark – were unable to reach the championship site. Each of those school's travel was hampered by a snowstorm that blanketed the Willamette Valley Thursday morning.
 
The Wildcat men's squad is aiming to elevate from a fourth-place showing at last year's championship meet. The Linfield women were second last season and have aspirations to at least maintain that position if not claim the program's second conference championship in the last three seasons.
 
On Thursday, the Linfield men and women each notched season-best times but the women were tagged with a disqualification for an illegal turn in the day's opening event. Team scores remain unannounced pending the makeup relay races for the three late-arriving schools.
 
WOMEN
The Wildcat women opened the meet on a disappointing note. The squadron of Avery Campbell, Alana Zumbrum, Sarah Arpag and Lauren Bobo-Shisler were saddled with a disqualification in the day's opening event, the 200-yard medley relay.
 
The 800 freestyle relay, comprised of Kirsti Keppo, Arpag, Kalea Mullins and Bobo-Shishler, recorded a third-place finish in 7:49.17, a vast improvement over their entry time of 8:13.44.
 
MEN
Linfield's 200 medley relay squad, featuring Sam Postlewait, Ivan Tontchev, Rocco Velie and Carson Washburn, claimed a third-place result in the 200-yard medley relay. The Wildcats held off a strong challenge from Pacific Lutheran to claim third, 1:34.46 to 1:34.83.
 
The foursome of Velie, Postlewait, Gavin Smith and Washburn, secured fourth place in the 800 freestyle relay in 6:59.35, slicing more than 13 seconds off their previous top time of 7:13.06.
 
NEXT
Preliminaries in five men's and women's events get underway Friday starting at 9:30 a.m. Finals in the same events, plus the 400 medley relay, begin at 5 p.m.