Wilhelmi Wins 50 Freestyle, Jenner is First in 100 Breaststroke, at Bruin Invite

By Robert McKinney, Assistant Athletics Director, Communications

NEWBERG, Ore. -- Julius Wilhelmi (So., Roseville, Ca/Woodcreek HS) of Willamette University won the men's 50-yard freestyle, and Sarah Jenner (Fy., Normandy Park, WA/Stanford Online HS) won the women's 100-yard breaststroke for the Bearcats, during the second day of the 2021 Bruin Invitational on Sunday, Dec. 5. The Bearcats also took first place in the women's 200-yard medley relay on Sunday. The two-day swimming meet concluded with Willamette in second place in both the men's and women's team standings.

Preliminaries and finals were held in the individual events, with only finals in the relays. Several events featured an "A" final (championship) and a "B" final (consolation).

"It was another incredible day of fast swimming from both teams," Willamette Head Swimming Coach Brent Summers noted. "We had very strong prelims that put us in position to have some really great finals swims."

Wilhelmi earned first place in the men's 50-yard freestyle with a time of 21.39 seconds in the "A" final. He won by 0.25 as Levi Gibson from host George Fox University finished second in 21.64 seconds. Wilhelmi missed Willamette's all-time top 5 list by .09. The list features Steve Koga (1978-82) in all five spots, including the school record of 20.88 in 1981 and the fifth-fastest time of 21.30 seconds in 1982.

The winning time for Jenner in the "A" final of the women's 100-yard breaststroke was 1:08.46, as she held off teammate Min Wei (Sr., Fushun, China/Cascade HS), who took second place in 1:08.91. Willamette completed a sweep of the top three positions when Anna Hornbeck (Fy., Bend, OR/Bend HS) completed the race in 1:09.24. Katherina Cory (So., Dublin, CA/Dublin HS) of WU grabbed fifth place in 1:10.68.

Willamette's victory in the women's 200-yard medley relay was achieved with a time of 1:53.00, as the Bearcats edged out George Fox, which took second place at 1:53.62. Swimming on the relay for the Bearcats were Tatum Good (Fy., Scottsdale, AZ/Scottsdale Prep Academy), Hornbeck, Wei, and Alayna Kisiday (Fy., Silverdale, WA/Central Kitsap HS).

In addition to winning the 50 freestyle, Wilhelmi placed second in the 200-yard freestyle in 1:47.05. He was 0.52 behind the winner, Cameron Wheeler of Linfield University, who was timed at 1:46.53.

Jenner supplemented her win in the 100 breaststroke with third place in the 200-yard freestyle. She earned a time of 2:01.54 in the 200.

Cole Lindberg (Fy., Moses Lake, WA/Moses Lake Christian Academy) of Willamette placed second in the men's 200-yard butterfly in 2:00.24, while Will Compton (Jr., Portage, MI/Portage Northern HS) was third in 2:04.44. Lindberg took fourth place in the men's 100-yard backstroke by completing the race in 56.85 seconds.

The "A" final of the women's 100-yard backstroke included Good in third place and Jacqueline Hall (Fy., Bainbridge Island, WA/Bainbridge HS) in fifth place. Good was timed at 1:01.46 and Hall touched out at 1:08.01.

Good placed fifth and Kisiday was sixth in the women's 50-yard freestyle. Good's time was 26.00 seconds, and Kisiday attained a time of 26.31 seconds. Robbie Daugherty (Sr., Reno, NV/Damonte Ranch HS) of WU took sixth place in the men's 200-yard freestyle. In the men's

In the men's 100-yard breaststroke, Willamette swimmers claimed sixth, seventh, and eighth. Logan Copeland (So., Sparks, NV/Spanish Springs HS) was sixth in 1:04.64, with Gabriel Owen (Jr., Durham, CA/Durham HS) in seventh at 1:07.61 and Keaton Adams (Sr., Colorado Springs, CO/Doherty HS) in eighth at 1:08.60.

Three Willamette swimmers won "B" finals to place ninth overall in their respective events. Anna Jones (Sr., Silverdale, WA/North Kitsap HS) claimed first place in the "B" final of the women's 100-yard backstroke in 1:10.46, and Copeland won the "B" final in the men's 100-yard backstroke in 58.94 seconds. Kisiday took first place in the "B" final of the women's 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:05.90.

"This was one of the best overall team performances we've had at a mid-season meet," Summers said. "We had about half the team hit personal-best times and everyone improved their season-best times. I've very excited to head into the later part of the season as we turn our sights toward the Northwest Conference Championships in February."

George Fox won the men's and women's team championships at the Bruin Invitational. In the women's standings, GFU scored 800 points, while Willamette was second with 624 points and Lewis & Clark College placed third with 487. Pacific University earned fourth place at 297, Mills College (Calif.) was fifth at 104, and Linfield placed sixth with 93 points. The men's standings included George Fox at 663 points, Willamette in second place at 571, Lewis & Clark in third place at 531, Linfield in fourth place at 386, and Pacific in fifth place with 134 points.