Pacific Splits With Willamette

A pair of first place finishes by Scott Kimura (Fr., McMinnville, Ore.) and Brandan Mantei (Fr., Canby, Ore.) helped Pacific win their first ever men’s dual meet Saturday as the Boxers dualed Willamette in Northwest Conference swimming action at the Forest Grove Aquatic Center.

The Boxer men scored an 82-74 victory over the Bearcats.  The victory is the first for the men’s program since the team was resurrected in 2004.  In addition, the win was the first in a NWC dual for either the men’s or
women’s team since swimming returned to Pacific in 2003.

Kimura provided a pair of strong performances in one-on-one events to help secure a lead early.  Kimura out-dueled Matt Tanigawa in the 50-yard freestyle, winning in 23.75 seconds.  Three events later, Kimura was an easy
winner in the 20-yard butterfly over Kevin Tangeman.  Kimura’s time of 2:23.87 gave the Boxers a 51-33 lead midway through the meet.

Mantei ran away with his first event, winning the 200-yard individual medley
in a time of 2:05.20.  In the meet’s penultimate event, with the Boxers
clinging to a 66-59 lead, Mantei put together another dominant performance.
In the 200-yard breaststroke, Mantei put together a 16-second victory,
clocking 2:22.07 to secure the dual meet win.

Pacific also received an individual event victory from Sam Watanuki (So.,
Denver, Colo.), who won the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:09.74.  The
Boxers also won the opening event of the afternoon, the 200-yard medley
relay, with a time of 1:48.60.

The Willamette men received two victories from Greg Henselman, who swam
unopposed in the 100-yard freestyle (12:21.85) and the 500-yard freestyle
(5:45.72).  John Schmidtbauer won the 100-yard freestyle (51.23 seconds),
while the Bearcats also took the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:36.06).

Pacific’s women dropped their meet to the Bearcats by a final of 116-60.
Alex Prigge (Jr., Ellensburg, Wash.) led the Boxers with a pair of
individual event victories, capturing top honors in the 200-yard freestyle
in 2:10.13 and the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:45.16.

Julie Garner (Fr., Burns, Ore.) was the Boxers’ only other individual
place-winner, capturing the 200-yard breaststroke in a time of 2:46.89.

The Bearcats’ women won six individual events and both relays.  Brittany
Thiemens won two events to lead Willamette, claiming the 50-yard freestyle
(23.61 seconds) and the 100-yard freestyle (58.56 seconds). Gwen Schulze set
a new Forest Grove Aquatic Center record in the 200-yard backstroke with her
time of 2:21.57.

Saturday’s meet was the final home event of the season for Pacific.  The
Boxers will wrap up their dual meet schedule on Jan. 26 when they travel to
Linfield.  That meet will be followed by the Northwest Conference
Championships, which will be held Feb. 8-10 at the King County Aquatic
Center in Federal Way, Wash.