Linfield hosted George Fox on Saturday, November 19, for their first home swim meet of the season. The women’s team defeated the Bruins 126-69, while the men’s team also secured a win with a score of 114-83. 

The very first event of the day set the tone for the remainder of the meet, with both the Linfield women’s and men’s teams winning the 200-yard medley relays. 

Linfield freshman Kristi Keppo finished the women’s 1650-yard freestyle with a time of 18:39.75, placing her in first and nearly 18 seconds ahead of her closest competitor. Linfield sophomore Jack Gallo, also placed first in the men’s 1650-yard freestyle with a time of 17:36.24. 

The women’s 200-yard freestyle led to a victory from sophomore Avery Campbell (2:03.38). The men’s 200-yard freestyle was a close race with junior Sasha Moore finishing less than a second behind George Fox with a time of 1:54.47. 

The 50-yard freestyle was again dominated by Linfield swimmers with junior Maggie Kelley placing first (26.29) and sophomore Lauren Bobo-Shisler placing second (26.33) in the women’s race. The men’s 50-yard freestyle race was swept by Linfield with Edan Donaldson (21.70), Garrett Sutton (21.78) and Ben Simpson (21.91) taking the top three slots, respectively. 

Linfield’s Kalea Mullins hit the wall right before teammate Kate Walkup in the 400-yard individual medley, placing Mullins first with a time of 4:49.28 and Walkup second with a time of 4:50.51. The men’s 400-yard individual medley was dominated by freshman Rocco Velie, who finished the event with a time of 4:29.55—13 seconds ahead of the second-place swimmer. 

Walkup placed first in the women’s 100-yard fly with a time of 1:01.40. Andrew Lee (55.97) and Daniel Olson (56.45) placed second and third in the men’s 100-yard fly, both finishing less than a second behind the George Fox winner. 

Freshman Sarah Arpag, had an impressive swim in the women’s 100-yard freestyle, finishing 3.5 seconds faster than the second place winner, with a time of 56.21. 

Keppo and Velie both took their second wins of the day in the 100-yard backstroke. Keppo finished first in the women’s race with a time of 1:08.46, while Velie finished first in the men’s race with a time of 57.41. 

Mullins also gained her second win of the day in the women’s 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:31.83, placing her nearly 14 seconds ahead of teammate Arpag. Simpson placed first in the men’s 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:59.82. 

The last individual event, the 100-yard breaststroke, was won by junior Whitney Averill (1:09.29) for the women and George Fox for the men. 

The final event of the day was the 200-yard freestyle relay, in which Linfield placed first in both the women’s and men’s events. 

Overall, the Linfield Wildcats won a majority of the events, securing them their fourth Northwest Conference win of the season. Next, the team is set to travel to Newberg Ore., on Dec. 3 and Dec. 4 for the Bruin Invitational swim meet hosted by George Fox.