FEDERAL WAY, Wash.- A pair of exciting finishes at the end capped the first day of competition for the Puget Sound Loggers on day one of the 2010 Northwest Conference Swimming Championships on Friday at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, Wash. Puget Sound is in second place in both the men’s and women’s standing following the first day of competition.

In the first event, the Logger women battled with Whitworth for all 200 yards of the medley relay but the Pirates were nine one-hundredths of a second faster as Puget Sound took second with a time of 1:38.37. The Logger men got revenge in the next race as Puget Sound collected their first conference title of 2010, winning the men’s 200yd freestyle relay with a time of 1:25.38.

In the women’s 200yd IM, sophomore Maggie Smith (St. Paul, Minn.) swam a 2:13.90 to earn a third-place finish. Puget Sound also got a solid result in the women’s 50yd freestyle as Katie Barton (Boise, Idaho) swam a quick race to take second with a time of 24.60.

The Logger women wrapped up the first day of competition in fine fashion, posting a B-cut qualifying time of 3:59.64 to win the 400yd medley relay. The defending champion Loggers sit comfortably in second place following the first day of competition with 200 points. Whitworth is first with 236, followed by the Loggers, Lewis & Clark (107), Whitman (101), Pacific (97), Linfield (74), Willamette (73) and Pacific Lutheran (49).

The Logger men ended the day on a high note as well, posting an impressive win the 400 medley relay with a B-cut qualifying time of 3:26.21, over two seconds faster than the NCAA provisional mark. The Logger men are also in second place following the first day with 180 points. Whitworth is first with 226 points, followed by Puget Sound, Whitman (143), Linfield (113), Lewis & Clark (90), Pacific Lutheran (77) and Pacific (63).

Day two of the NWC Championships will begin with preliminaries at 10:00 a.m. Day two finals are set for 6:00 p.m. at WKCAC.