Linfield’s swim team had their first meet of the year at the Northwest Conference Sprint Meet on Nov. 1, as well as the NWC Relay Meet on Nov 2.

The NWC Sprint Meet was hosted in Tacoma, Wash., by Pacific Lutheran University. Linfield placed in the top 25 in six of the 10 events, and in the top 10 for one of them.

Sophomore Ian White was the star of the show for Linfield, placing eighth in the men’s 50-yard backstroke with a time of 26.25 seconds. He also placed 14th in the men’s 100-yard IM race, finishing with a time of 57.09 seconds.

Sophomore Nikki Overton also did well for the Wildcats, placing 26th twice in the meet for her 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard IM.

Overton was three seconds behind the 100 IM winner Jackie Beal, a freshman from Whitworth University, with a time of 1:06.20, and two seconds behind the winner Tai Hallstein, a freshman from Whitman in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 26.69 seconds.

Despite their Nov. 2 meet loss, the Wildcats have high hopes for the rest of the season.

“I got a best time in the 100-yard IM and my times for the 50s were OK. It’s still early in the season and I had a really long day on Friday and I think it showed in my races,” freshman Anna Korn said.

Korn placed 37th in the Nov. 1 Sprint Meet in her 50-yard backstroke with a time of 32.14 seconds. She also placed 84th in the 100-yard IM with a time of 1:12.54 seconds.

“My times weren’t as fast as what I was going my senior year of high school but I took the summer off and I’m just starting to get back into it,” said Korn.

Junior Ian Coker also shook off the loss and said, “We had some good performances and got to see how the rest of the conference looked. It was nice to start the season with a low-pressure meet.”

Coker’s 1:00.53 100-yard IM ranked him 45th in the Nov. 1 Relay Meet, and he hopes to improve throughout the season.

“I would like to be a top 16 finisher at conference in the 200-yard freestyle and a top eight finisher in the 1650-yard freestyle. I also hope to get faster and have personal best times in all my events at conference,” Coker said.

The Wildcats have their next meet at 6 p.m. on Nov. 8 at home against Whitman College.