FEDERAL WAY, Wash. – Strong results by Lee Rivers (Jr., Renton, Wash.) in the 200-yard individual medley lifted the Linfield men’s swimming squad into fifth place after the first round of competition Friday at the Northwest Conference Championships at King County Aquatic Center. Linfield’s women, riding a school-record result by freshman Nikki Overton (Fr., Gresham, Ore.), sit in seventh place at the championship event as the eight teams head to Saturday’s second round of competition.

Leading the Linfield men was Rivers, who raced to a sixth-place finish in the men’s 200 individual medley in 1 minute, 57.57 seconds. Freshman Ian White (Fr., Kailua, Hawaii) was 15th in the same event in 2:02.04.

Rivers also combined with White, Sean Iwamasa (Sr., Mililani, Hawaii) and Chris Purdy (Soph., Sublimity, Ore.) for a fourth-place result in the 400 medley relay. The Wildcats' time of 3:38.46 was more than seven seconds faster than Friday morning’s preliminary result.

After clocking the second-fastest time in the 500 freestyle during Friday morning’s preliminaries and setting a new Linfield standard, Overton settled for fourth place in the evening finals. Perhaps tiring after her initial burst, Overton was timed in 5:10.58, nearly two seconds slower than her prelim time of 5:08.65. Fellow Linfield frosh Elizabeth Fry (Fr., Bellevue, Idaho) earned 11 team points by placing eighth in the event in 5:19.50.

The Linfield women’s 200 freestyle relay collected 30 team points with a fourth-place showing. The foursome of Overton, Kelcie Kimura (Soph., Honolulu, Hawaii), Tori Nickerson (Soph., Oak Harbor, Wash.) and Megan Sandall (Sr., Bellevue, Wash.) shaved four seconds off its preliminary time.

Linfield’s 400 medley relay achieved a respectable sixth-place showing for the Wildcat women. Maggie May (Soph., Aberdeen, Wash.) teamed with Sandall, Main and Kimura to finish in 4:03.68, nearly seven seconds faster than the quartet’s preliminary timing.

In the women’s 50 freestyle, Kimura shared ninth place in the consolation fianls with Whitworth’s Kori Carpenter, each with an identical 25.02 clocking.

The men’s team scores after Friday’s opening round of events: Whitworth 216, Whitman 174, Pacific Lutheran 142, Puget Sound 108, Linfield 67, Lewis & Clark 66, Pacific 63, Willamette 54.

The women’s team scores through the opening night are: Whitworth 212, Pacific Lutheran 133.5, Whitman 122, Pacific 112.5, Puget Sound 103, Lewis & Clark 101, Linfield 96, Willamette 46.

Action continues Saturday at the King County Aquatics Center Saturday with preliminaries at 10 a.m. followed by finals at 6 p.m.