Piper Finishes 17th Overall at NWC Sprint Pentathlon

By Robert McKinney, Athletics Communications Director, (503) 370-6110

FOREST GROVE, ORE. -- Willamette University competed at the Northwest Conference Sprint Pentathlon on Saturday, Oct. 27 at Pacific University. Swimmers participated in five events -- 50-yard races in the butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle, plus the 100-yard individual medley.

Sean Piper (So, Normandy Park, WA/John F. Kennedy HS) was Willamette's top men's finisher in the overall pentathlon standings as he earned 17th place out of 86 swimmers who completed all four strokes and the individual medley. His combined time for the five events was 2:45.29.

Piper was 13th in the 50-yard backstroke, 19th in the 50-yard butterfly, 21st in the 100-yard individual medley, 22nd in the 50-yard freestyle, and 25th in the 50-yard breaststroke. He earned a time of 26.74 seconds in the 50 backstroke and a time of 25.69 in the 50 fly.

Alex Guffey (Fr., Seattle, WA/Roosevelt HS) from WU claimed 24th place overall. He achieved a five-event time of 2:47.85. Also for the Bearcat men's team, Andrew Lum (Fr., Honolulu, HI/Punahou School) took 38th place with a total time of 2:51.86.

The top finisher for the Bearcats in the women's pentathlon standings was Michaela Zuber (Fr., Sacramento, CA/Sheldon HS). She placed 48th out of 87 athletes entered in all five events. Her combined time was 3:17.85.

Piper's accomplishments in the 50 backstroke and the 50 fly produced two of the eight top 20 results for the Bearcat men's and women's teams during the meet.

Lum led the way with 10th place in the men's 50-yard butterfly in 25.23 seconds. Malia Santos (Fr., Kailua-Kona, HI/Kealakehe HS) from the women's team took 11th place in the 50-yard backstroke at 30.08 seconds. Guffey was 12th in both the 50-yard butterfly in 25.46 seconds and the 50-yard freestyle in 23.06 seconds.

Zuber placed 16th in the women's 50-yard backstroke in 30.93 seconds. Santos was 17th in the 50-yard butterfly in 28.95 seconds and claimed 20th place in the 50-yard freestyle in 26.56 seconds.

Men's event winners were Michael Hargitt of Pacific in the 100-yard individual medley (55.47), Aaron Vaccaro of Whitworth in the 50-yard butterfly (23.30), Nick Win from Whitman in the 50-yard backstroke (25.53), Paul Chang of Whitman in the 50-yard breaststroke (28.04) and Karl Mering of Whitman in the 50-yard freestyle (21.99).

Event winners in the women's competition were Alisa Stang of Whitworth) in both the 50-yard backstroke (29.12) and the 50-yard freestyle (24.81), Samantha Smith of Whitworth in the 100-yard individual medley (1:02.46), Katie Porter of Pacific in the 50-yard butterfly (26.70) and Genay Pilarowksi of Whitman in the 50-yard breaststroke (31.90).

Mering won the overall men's title with a combined time of 2:38.49. The overall women's title went to Smith, who achieved a total time of 2:58.33.

Whitworth garnered the men's team title with a score of 271. Whitman claimed the women's team title by scoring 268.66 points to hold off Whitworth, which finished second with 249.83 points.