Trio Earn Pair of Victories, as Willamette Splits Dual Meet With College of Idaho

Written by Mark Colachico, Athletics Communications Writer

SALEM, Ore. - The Willamette University swim teams competed Friday evening in a non-conference dual meet against The College of Idaho, as the Bearcat men defeated the Yotes, 130.50-106.50, while the women fell to the NAIA's No. 7-ranked C of I, 131-105.

With the victory, Willamette's men improved to 1-4 on the season. The Bearcat women's team fell to 0-5. The Yotes fell to 0-2 in men's swimming, while the Lady Yotes upped their record to 2-2.

Willamette also hosted Southwestern Oregon Community College as part of the meet, but the NCAA does not count wins and losses against two-year colleges. The Bearcats earned victories on both sides against SWOCC, as the men won 157-86 to go along with a 163.50-74.50 victory for the women.

Individually, Willamette won nine events with Cassie Tallman (Jr., Seattle, WA/Roosevelt HS) taking home wins in the women's 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke in times of 1:10.16 and 2:34.11, respectively.

On the men's side, Alika Masei (Jr., Salem, OR/West Salem HS) and Mark Yuvienco (Jr., San Jose, CA/Bellarmine College Prep) both won a pair of events with Masei taking home victories in the men's 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke. Yuvienco won the men's 100-yard and 200-yard butterfly. Masei's times of 1:02.52 and 2:16.30 swept the breaststroke events, while Yuvienco posted times of 54.71 and 1:59.31 to win both of his events.

The Bearcats' Jason Bayang (Sr., Wahiawa, HI/Hoala School) started Willamette's list of wins with a victory in the men's 100-yard backstroke in a time of 57.38. He was followed by victories from Tallman, Masei, and Yuvienco, before Kate Harvey (Jr., Atlantic Beach, FL/Duncan Fletcher HS) and Shelby Merrill (Sr., Thousand Oaks, CA/Westlake HS) each earned come-from-behind victories in their respective 500-yard freestyle events.

The highlight of the night was in the men's 500-yard freestyle, as Merrill came-from-behind to touch the wall at the exact same time as College of Idaho's Graham Williams. Merrill overcame a three-second lead by Williams over the final 200 yards en route to earning a time of 4:59.71. Meanwhile, Harvey posted a winning time of 5:48.74 in her come-from-behind win in the women's 500-yard freestyle.

Willamette returns to the pool on Friday, January 20, when the Bearcats host fellow Northwest Conference member Lewis & Clark College beginning at 6:00 p.m. inside the WU Natatorium.