FEDERAL WAY, Wash. - On the first day of perhaps the fastest Northwest Conference Championships in history, the Puget Sound Loggers broke three NWC and school records as they moved into second place in the standings with two days left to swim on Friday at the NWC Championships at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, Wash.

The evening session began with a close race in the women's 200 Freestyle Relay.  Though Whitworth collected the win with a NWC-record time of 1:36.84, the Loggers met the B-cut qualifying mark with a second-place time of 1:37.22.

The Loggers first win and broken record came in the men's 200 Freestyle Relay as the team of Bret Schluderberg (Chapel Hill, N.C.), Paul Hughes (Ruston, Wash./Curtis), Christopher Daly (Boise, Idaho/Bishop Kelly) and Aaron Hughes (Ruston, Wash./Curtis) swam a time of 1:22.63 to break the nearly-nine year old NWC and UPS record of 1:23.88 which was set in 1999.

In the men's 50 Freestyle, Schluederberg was out-touched by Dominic Rieniets of Linfield in the finals but still collected a B-cut qualifying time of 20.89 in prelims. 

In the women's 400 Medley Relay, the Loggers broke another record as the team of Kenzie Kitson (Durango, Colo.), Sierra Phillips (Cottonwood Heights, Utah/Brighton), Kelsey Elizondo (Salt Lake City, Utah/Judge Memorial) and Hally Roberts (Boulder, Colo./Kenyon College) finished first with a NWC-record time of 3:56.67, which was over three-seconds quicker than the NCAA DIII B-Cut.

The final event of the night was the men's 400 medley relay and the team of Garrett Gentling (Shoreline, Wash./Shorewood), Paul Hughes, Jackson Kowalski (Keizer, Ore./McNary) and Schluederberg put up a B-Cut and NWC-record time of 3:24.63 to win by over eight seconds.

Following the first day of competition, the Loggers trail Whitworth, 245-215.5, on the women's side and 206-191 on the men's side.  The action continues on Saturday as all eight teams hit the pool again at 10:00 a.m. for prelims and 6:00 p.m. for finals.

Results