McMINNVILLE, Ore. – Wrapping up the regular season on a high note, the Linfield swim teams overwhelmed their rivals from Willamette Saturday afternoon at the Linfield Aquatic Center, with final scores of 113-89 for the men and 106-98 for the women.

Willamette swept both the men and women’s 200-yard medley relay. The Linfield women Maggie May (Soph., Aberdeen, Wash.), Brandi Halemano (Soph., Honolulu, Hawaii), Katie Main (Sr., Mill Creek, Wash.) and Tori Nickerson (Soph., Oak Harbor, Wash.) finished second behind Willamette swimmers Michaela Zuber, Annie Marinello, Kayla Kosaki and Malia Santos by only .38 seconds, with final times of 1:57.46 and 1:57.84.

The men of Willamette, Alex Guffey, Chris Whitehead, Andrew Lum and Nick Barton, finished in 1:45.46, and the Wildcats Alec Greenway, Chris Purdy (Soph., Sublimity, Ore.), Miles Phillips (Sr., Richland, Wash.), and Tom Gilmore (Sr., Portland, Ore.) finished second with a time of 1:46.92.

For the women, Nikki Overton (Fr., Gresham, Ore.) blew away the competition in the women’s 200-yard freestyle, finishing in 2:00.74 and leaving Willamette swimming Erin Parkinson in second place (2:06.50).

Bearcat Marinello finished first in the women’s 400-yard individual medley in 4:50.67. Wildcat Megan Sandall (Sr., Bellevue, Wash.) finished just behind her, bringing in a time of 4:50.85.

Main pushed hard in the women’s 100-yard butterfly to pull out a win over Willamette’s Santos by only 19 hundredths of a second (1:03.23 to 1:03.42). Fellow Bearcat Kosaki followed close behind with a time of 1:03.96.

May won the women’s 100-yard backstroke in 1:03.98. Bearcats Zuber and Kersey Bars finished second and third, with respective times of 1:04.36 and 1:10.26.

Marinello (1:10.04) of Willamette beat out Wildcat teammates Sandall (1:10.22) and Halemano (1:12.77) in the women’s 100-yard breaststroke.

Linfield swimmers Kelcie Kimura (Soph., Honolulu, Hawaii), Overton, Elizabeth Fry (Fr., Bellevue, Idaho) and Sandall finished the women’s 200-yard freestyle relay in 1:42.74. Willamette swimmers Hope Nelson, Zuber, Jessica Beach, and Christa Rohrbach finished second in 1:47.95.

On the men’s side of the meet, Sean Iwamasa (Sr., Mililani, Hawaii) finished first in the men’s 50-yard freestyle in 23.67, followed by Willamette’s Kulan Tarnas (24.05).

Lee Rivers (Jr., Renton, Wash.) brought home first place in the men’s 400-yard IM (4:26.35), followed by fellow Wildcat Ian Coker (Soph., Colorado Springs, Colo.) (4:38.71). Bearcat Zander Le Bel rounded out the top three with a final time of 4:52.28.

Wildcats Phillips and Iwamasa finished the men’s 100-yard butterfly with only a .06 difference between their first- and second-place finishes (55.80 to 55.86). Bearcat Andrew Lum finished third with a time of 56.33.

Coker finished the men’s 100-yard freestyle in 51.60. Willamette’s Le Bel finished second in 52.30, and classmate Chris Whitehead finished third in 53.60.

Rivers beat the competition in the men’s 100-yard backstroke. He finished the race in 57.74, with his nearest competitor, fellow Wildcat Aidan Willers (Soph., Tacoma, Wash.), finishing in 1:00.99. Third place also went to the Wildcats as Greenaway finished in 1:01.82.

Purdy (1:03.90) and Rivers (1:04.47) achieved first- and second-place finishes in the men’s 100-yard breaststroke, with third place going to Bearcat Tarnas (1:04.93).

The Linfield men finished first in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Ian White (Fr., Kailua, Hawaii), Coker, Daniel Palacios (Soph., McMinnville, Ore), and Iwamasa finished in 1:33.11, while Willamette swimmers Nick Barton, Aran Johnson, Alex Burkhart, and Tarnas finished in 1:36.17.

‘CAT SCRATCH: Linfield swept Willamette for the fifth straight season...prior to the meet, nine Wildcats were honored as part of Senior Day festivities, including Gilmore, Iwamasa, Main, Phillips, Sandall, Rachel Codd (Sr., Seattle, Wash.), Catherine Nakamura (Sr., Mililani, Hawaii), Rhiannon Ladwig (Sr., Boise, Idaho) and Maria Schwarz (Sr., Salt Lake City, Utah).

NEXT: All that remains for this swim season is the Northwest Conference Championships, contested February 8-10 at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, Wash.