McMINNVILLE, Ore. â€" At home in their home pool, the Linfield men’s and women’s swim clubs both finished fifth in the two-day, seven-team Northwest Invitational, which concluded Saturday evening at the Linfield Aquatic Center.

Whitworth won the team titles on both sides, outscoring runner-up Pacific Lutheran in both races. Aaron Vaccaro won three events for the Pirate men, who tallied 846.5 points. The Whitworth women were led by Jennifer Benson, who scored two individual victories and also swam on four of the Pirates’ five winning relay teams.

Natalie Groat was the highest overall finisher for the Wildcats, taking second in the 200-yard butterfly. She was also fifth in the 100 butterfly.

Placing in the top 10 in three different events on the women’s side were Kelcie Kimura (Soph., Honolulu, Hawaii), Maggie May (Soph., Aberdeen, Wash.) and Tori Nickerson (Soph., Oak Harbor, Wash.). Kimura finished fourth in the 100 freestyle, sixth in the 200 individual medley and ninth in the 100 backstroke. May, meanwhile, supplied a pair of sixth-place efforts in the 400 individual medley and 200 backstroke, and also took 10th in the 100 backstroke. Nickerson was the fourth-fastest competitor in the 200 breaststroke, seventh-best in the 10 breaststroke and eighth-quickest in the 200 individual medley.

As a team, Linfield placed fifth with 380 points, after Whitworth, PLU, Whitman and Pacific but ahead of Willamette and the College of Idaho.

Lee Rivers (Jr., Renton, Wash.) and Seth Ruwitch led the Linfield men’s effort. Rivers took third in the 200 individual medley and eighth in both the 100 butterfly and 100 freestyle. Ruwitch was fourth in the 100 breaststroke, fifth in the 200 breaststroke and ninth in the 200 individual medley.

Also providing top-10 performances for the ‘Cats were Miles Phillips (Sr., Richland, Wash.), Chris Purdy (Soph., Sublimity, Ore.) and Sean Iwamasa (Sr., Mililani, Hawaii). Phillips placed fourth in the 200 butterfly and eighth in the 100 breaststroke. Purdy was the eighth-fastest competitor in the 100 breaststroke and ninth-best in the 200 breaststroke. Iwamasa finished ninth in the 200 butterfly.

Like the women, the Linfield men placed fifth of seven teams, totaling 285 points.

'CAT SCRATCH: At the 2010 Northwest Invitational, the women and men also placed fifth, but scored just 205 and 187 points, respectively.

NEXT: The Wildcats host four consecutive home meets, beginning with a dual contest against the College of Idaho. The one-day meet, scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 3, begins at 1 p.m.