Wildcats sweep the Boxers in residence debut

MCMINNVILLE, Ore.. — Linfield males’s and girls’s swimming hosted their first residence meet of the season on Friday night time contained in the Linfield Pool, with every crew sweeping the Boxers, their second-straight sweep to open the 2025-26 season. Men’s swimming gained every occasion to a 102-29 victory, in the meantime the ladies’s crew dealt with the Boxers, 99-78.
 
“It’s always good for both sides to start out 2-0. These first two meets have been a great tune-up for what we have coming ahead in our trip to Los Angeles at the La Verne Invitational. That will be a good opportunity for us to race some great Division III competition and see some new teams down there.” Said Head Coach Kyle Kimball. 
 
“Today, we had some people swimming outside of their comfort zone, and we tried to create some of our own competition in the races that we could. Watching the team get up, and get excited for each other was fun.”
 
To start the meet, the crew of Andrew Seale, Andrew Lee, Ivan Tontchev, and Carson Washburn defeated the Boxers squad, posting a time of three:47.63, incomes a profitable margin of 44-seconds. The Wildcats posted the fourth-fastest time within the occasion this season. The ladies’s relay crew adopted swimsuit, as Chloe Lazaraton, Sarah Arpag, Kirsti Keppo, and Caley Haydu cruised to a win by over a minute, with Wildcats Kermen Kendoll, Mikayla Wilson, Taila Patterson, and Rebecca Colburn taking second place. 
 
Rocco Veile was the lone competitor within the males’s 1000-yard freestyle, notching a time of 11:57.8. Amanda Reso claimed the 1000-yard freestyle, ending in 12:43.4, a top-ten time within the NWC. Reso completed 46-seconds forward of her opponent from Pacific. 
 
Logan Mendez gained the third-straight males’s occasion for Linfield, with a 1:55.8 within the 200-yard free, he was trailed by fellow Wildcat Andrew Seale, serving to Linfield safe the top-two spots within the occasion. The Boxers ladies’s crew claimed their first occasion of the meet within the 200-yard free, simply beating out Linfield’s Annika Fetro. 
 
Linfield swept the top-three finishers within the males’s 50-yard freestyle, with Samuel Postlewait was the quickest at 22.4-seconds and Elijah Ng shut behind with a 24.2. Kai Laitinen rounded out the top-three finishers, forward of the quickest Boxer within the race. Another occasion fell the Boxers approach within the ladies’s 50-yard freestyle, with Mikayla Wilson taking third because the quickest ‘Cat within the race. 
 
Jack Sappington gained the boys’s 200-yard IM, incomes the NWC’s eighth-fastest time within the occasion with a 2:08.4. Tontchev completed second, ten-seconds behind Sappington. Women’s swim acquired again within the winners circle, due to Kira Etheredge claiming the 200-yard IM with a 2:22.7, the fifth-fastest time within the convention this season. 
 
Lucas Buker was the lone competitor within the males’s 200-yard butterfly, notching a time of two:35.4 to earn the Wildcats yet one more win. Arpag cruised to an enormous victory for the ladies’s crew, recording a 2:19.1, for a brand new fourth-fastest NWC mark within the occasion. 
 
Sappington returned within the 100-free, profitable his second occasion of the night time with a time of 51.68, Ng trialed shut with a 53.62. Reso additionally grabbed her second win of the meet in the identical occasion, profitable the 100-free with a time of 1:03.6. Keppo’s return noticed her win the ladies’s 200-yard backstroke, not solely profitable the occasion, however incomes the fifth-fastest time within the convention with a 2:21.7. Etheredge additionally notched a superb convention mark in her 200-yard breaststroke, with a 2:36.7, she moved into second within the NWC. 
 
To shut out the night time, the boys’s 400-yard freestyle relay crew of Postlewait, Washburn, Tontchev, and Lee recorded a 3:24.5 to beat out teammates Velie, Sappington, Ng, and Laitinen as the one different relay crew within the race. Linfield males’s swimming gained each occasion over the Boxers within the meet. In the ladies’s 400-yard freestyle relay, Annikka Fetro, Lazaraton, Keppo, and Etheredge simply completed forward of teammates Rebecca Colburn, Arpag, Patterson, and Haydu who have been simply seven-tenths of a second behind the profitable crew from Linfield. 
 
The males’s crew remained good, with Andrew Lee as the one swimmer within the males’s 500-yard freestyle, ending in 5:48.1. Caley Haydu lapped three different swimmers from Pacific in path to profitable the ladies’s 500-yard free with the convention’s tenth-best time of 5:44.0. Veile shined as soon as once more I the boys’s 200-yard breaststroke, profitable with the third-fastest NWC time of two:21.9; a 39-second margin on the quickest Boxer. Etheredge additionally sowed out once more, profitable the ladies’s 200-yard breastroke with a 2:36.7. 
 
To shut out the meet, the 400-yard freestyle males’s relay crew of Postlewait, Washburn, Tontchev, and Lee swam a 3:24.5 to beat the opposite Wildcat crew however simply eight-seconds. Annikka Fetro, Lazaraton, Keppo, and Etheredge additionally ended the meet with a win within the 400-yard freestyle relay, simply beating the second crew from Linfield by seven-tenths of a second. 
 
Both groups earned their second-straight wins over convention opponents to start the season.
 
“Sam Postlewait is looking real solid right now, winning two events today. And Reso has been great, winning two races today, a sprint and distance, that’s very hard to do. Kira Etheredge winning two events as well is a great sign for us as a freshman, and she’s unique because she’s a nursing student on the Portland campus. She continues to work hard and stay focused.”
 
The Wildcats are again in motion subsequent Friday and Saturday in Tacoma, Washington, set to face Puget Sound and Pacific Lutheran, with hopes of continuous every crew’s profitable streak. 
 
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