Whitworth men win 12th title in row

Whitworth won its 12th consecutive Northwest Conference swimming championship on Sunday night at the King County Weyerhaeuser Aquatic Center in Federal Way.

The Pirates outdistanced runner-up Whitman by 170 points in the three-day meet. The 12 consecutive titles, the last 11 under coach Steve Schadt, continues the longest championship streak in NWC history for any swimming school.

Whitworth had two individual winners on Sunday with Brandon Smith winning the 1,650-yard freestyle in 16 minutes, 6.13 seconds. Wes Walton won the 200 backstroke in 1:50.68 after winning his preliminary in a NWC-record time of 1:48.45.

Whitworth’s Walton and Whitman’s Karl Mering shared the NWC Outstanding Swimmer of the Meet award.  Each won all three of his individual events.

The Whitworth women fell two points short of repeating as champions as Pacific Lutheran took the title with 618.5 points.

Jackie Beal of Whitworth won the 200 backstroke in a meet-record 2:02.93. Alisa Stang won the 100 freestyle in 52.36.

In order to win the meet, Whitworth had to finish first in the final relay – the 400 freestyle – and PLU had to finish third or lower.  Pirates Samantha Smith, Hannah Norris, Kate Duvall and Stang won with a meet-record time of 3:32.27.  But the Lutes came through with a second-place finish.

Baseball

Jared Deacon’s RBI single with one out in the ninth inning gave the nation’s top-ranked team, Cal State Fullerton, a 5-4 win over Washington State in the rubber match of their three-game series at Fullerton, Calif.

Greg Velazquez led off the Titans’ ninth with a double off reliever Chris McDowell. After a sacrifice bunt, Deacon singled off the mitt of diving first baseman Matt Mendenhall.

• Andrew Sopko threw seven scoreless innings and Nick Brooks had two RBIs as Gonzaga won its first game of the season by defeating Nebraska 5-3 at the Husker Classic in Tempe, Ariz.

Indoor track and field

Idaho won five events at the UW Open in Seattle. For the men, Arphaxad Carroll won the long jump (23 feet, 3 1/4 inches), Kyle Rothwell the weight throw (60-5 3/4), and Ben Ayesu-Attah the 600 meters (1 minute, 20.55 seconds). For the women, Meghan Palesch the 60 hurdles (8.97) and Faith Eruwa the triple jump (37-4 1/2).

For Whitworth, sophomore Kierstie Shellman, broke her own school record with an eighth-place pole vault of 11-6 1/4. Freshman Danielle Openiano improved her women’s shot put school record with a ninth-place throw of 38-6.