Kates Wins I.M., Hedman is a Close 2nd in Butterfly, as Bearcats Battle Pirates
By Robert McKinney, Assistant Athletics Director, Communications
SPOKANE, Wash. -- Niki Kates (Sr., Truckee, CA/Forest Charter School) of Willamette University was victorious in the women's 200-yard individual medley and Willamette's Ben Hedman (Sr., Davis, CA/Davis HS) placed second by just 0.19 in the 200-yard butterfly, as the Bearcats swam against Whitworth University on Saturday, Nov. 16 in a Northwest Conference dual meet. Ben Fritz (Jr., Los Gatos, CA/Leigh HS) of Willamette won the men's 500-yard freestyle, and was third in the men's 200-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle.
Whitworth defeated Willamette in the men's competition, 150-55. The Pirates outscored the Bearcats in the women's events, 146-59. Both of Whitworth's teams are 4-0 on the season and 4-0 in the NWC. Willamette's teams fell to 0-3 overall, 0-3 in the NWC.
Kates earned a time of 2:21.89 to win the women's 200 I.M. by just under two seconds. Marissa Gibson of Whitworth placed second in 2:23.67. In the men's 200-yard butterfly, Hedman also prevailed against Logan Todd of Whitworth. Todd took first place in 2:02.03, while Hedman finished second in 2:02.22.
"I'm very pleased with how we seam today. The Whitman and Whitworth trip is always very tough with travel and two top teams in our conference. The team swam very well overall, and we saw some great improvements on our race strategy from two weeks ago versus Pacific Lutheran ... the last time we swam the long format."
— Willamette Head Coach Brent Summers
Fritz bested the field in the men's 500 freestyle at Whitworth on Saturday as he completed the race in 5:04.14. In the men's 200 freestyle, Fritz placed third in 1:51.80. Isaiah Ross of Whitworth took first place in the 200 at 1:48.87 and Connor Florey, also from Whitworth, took second in 1:50.73. Fritz was third in the 100-yard freestyle at 52.04 seconds, as he trailed Pirate swimmers Finn McClone (1st, 49.50 seconds) and Ean Peterson (2nd, 51.41 seconds).
Will Compton (Fy., Portage, MI/Portage Northern HS) of Willamette placed second in the men's 1,000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:32.79. Austin Fogel won the event for the Pirates by 3.64 seconds in 10:29.15.
Gwynneth Fritz (Fy., Los Gatos, CA/Leigh HS) of WU was third in the women's 50-yard freestyle in 27:10 seconds. Isabel Iral won the race for the Pirates in 26.27 seconds. Whitworth's Elizabeth Dressel placed second in 26.74 seconds. Gwynneth Fritz also placed third in the women's 100-yard freestyle in 1:00.09.
In the men's 50-yard freestyle, Evan Segimoto (Jr., Alamo, CA/The Athenian School) placed third for the Bearcats in 23.53 seconds. Camren Langdon led a 1-2 finish for the Pirates in 22.86 seconds, while Tristan Todd was second in 23.22 seconds.
Willamette will be back in action on Saturday, Nov. 23 and Sunday, November 24 at the Bruin Invitational. The meet will be hosted by George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon.