PORTLAND, Ore.—Lewis & Clark College men's swimming senior
Ezra Billings won the 50 and 100 Yard Free, to lead the River Otters on Saturday morning against defending Northwest Conference Champions Whitworth University.
THE BASICS
Whitworth 151, Lewis & Clark 47
HOW IT HAPPENED
Billings earned a pair of individual event victories for the second-straight day and the River Otters tacked on five top-three finishes against the Pirates.
The senior earned his first win of the day in the 50 Free. In a rematch of the 50 Yard Free Finals at the 2025 Northwest Conference Championship Meet, Billings defeated runner-up Nathanael Van Liew in a sprint finish. Billings touched the wall in 21.22 and Van Liew was just behind him in 21.74. Junior
Aidan Beatty placed sixth overall with a time of 25.81. First years
Kofi Franklin (26.35) and
Max Zuberbuhler (27.21) placed seventh and eighth.
Billings earned his second win of the day in the 100 Free. He once again beat Van Liew to the wall. Billings closed in 47.39 and Van Liew finished in 48.39. Junior
Colin Ziegler (54.66) and Beatty (56.49) finished sixth and seventh overall.
Sophomore
Sam LoCurto posted two of Lewis & Clark's three individual third-place finishes.
He took third out of six swimmers in the 200 Free with a time of 1:51.93. Senior
Zach Martin placed fourth overall (1:54.40) and first year
Reid McAllister finished sixth (1:59.85).
LoCurto and McAllister also swam the 100 Fly. LoCurto took third out of five swimmers with a mark of 53.96. McAllister notched a fifth-place finish with a time of 57.97.
Senior
Michael Spicer posted the team's final third-place finish by an individual. He took third in the 400 IM with a time of 4:36.37. Sophomore
Isaiah Frei came across in fifth place with a time of 4:53.46.
Lewis & Clark finished second out of three teams in the 200 Free Relay. In a rematch of the top two teams at last year's NWC Championship Meet, the River Otters finished 1.95 seconds behind the defending champions. The quartet of Billings, Spicer, LoCurto and Martin combined for a time of 1:29.20.
In the first relay of the day, Lewis & Clark placed third out of four teams in the 200 Medley Relay. Frei, Ziegler, McAllister and Beatty registered a time of 1:50.48.
BY THE NUMBERS
- The 200 Free Relay team's time of 1:29.20 was just outside the top-10 in program history. They were just 0.62 seconds behind the 10th spot all-time.
- Martin led Lewis & Clark in the 100 Breaststroke. He placed fourth overall with a time of 1:04.77. Ziegler (1:10.64) and Franklin (1:14.37) finished in fifth and sixth.
- Beatty posted a collegiate-best time in the 100 Free. He beat his PR time in the event 1.02 seconds on Saturday.
- Frei led Lewis & Clark in the 100 Backstroke. The sophomore finished fifth overall with a time of 59.54. Zuberbuhler took sixth with a mark of 1:09.33.
- Spicer represented Lewis & Clark in the Mile. The senior finished the 1,650 Free in 18:07.53 to place fourth.
WHO'S NEXT
Swimming will head to Tacoma next weekend for their final two dual meets of 2025. They will take on the University of Puget Sound on Friday at 6 p.m.
