Bearcats to Compete in Willamette Invitational in Swimming

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

SALEM, ORE. -- The Willamette Invitational in men's and women's swimming will be hosted by the Bearcats on Saturday, Nov. 22 at the WU Natatorium, starting at 10 a.m. (PST). Swimmers will compete in 100-yard and 200-yard races in each of the strokes, plus the 50, 500 and 1,650 freestyle events, 200 individual medley and two relays.

In the women's competition, Willamette University will be taking on Pacific University, College of Idaho and Mills College (Calif.). In the men's races, WU will be competing against Pacific, College of Idaho, and Trinity Lutheran College (Wash.). Trinity, in its first season of intercollegiate swimming, will be represented by just one men's swimmer.

The relay events will be the 200-yard medley relay to begin the meet and the 200-yard freestyle relay as the final event. Each team is limited to one scoring relay squad in each event. Additional relay teams will compete exhibition. Relay scoring will be 20-14-12-10. Individual events will be scored 10-7-6-5-4-3-2-1.

Willamette has received strong swimming from several of its freshmen this season. Last week was particularly strong for Cassie Tallman (Fr., Seattle, WA/Roosevelt HS) on the WU women's team and Mark Yuvienco (Fr., San Jose, CA/Bellarmine College Prep) on the Bearcat men's team. Both athletes were nominated for NWC Student-Athlete of the Week honors.

Tallman won the 200-yard individual medley in 2:16.48 and took first place in the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:30.08 during Willamette's meet against Pacific Lutheran University on Nov. 15. One day earlier, she helped WU take second place in the 200-yard medley relay versus University of Puget Sound in 1:56.44.

Against the Loggers, Tallman was second in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:10.61. In the 100 breaststroke, she trailed only teammate Ashlyn Witherwax (Fr., Honolulu, HI/Punahou School), who won the race in 1:09.58.

Yuvienco won one event against Puget Sound and won two events against Pacific Lutheran.

In the meet against the Loggers, Yuvienco won the 100-yard butterfly in 53.27 seconds with a margin of victory of 2.29 seconds. Against PLU, he won the 200-yard butterfly in 1:58.99, as he took first place by 4.08 seconds. He also won the 500-yard freestyle versus PLU in 4:57.32.

Yuvienco placed second in the 500 freestyle against UPS, and swam on two relays that took second place over the weekend.

The Willamette Invitational is the Bearcats' final competition of the fall semester. The Bearcats will return to action with Winter Training in San Diego, Calif., on Jan. 2-8, 2015, before hosting Southwestern Oregon Community College in an exhibition meet on Jan. 10 at the WU Natatorium.