FEDERAL WAY, Wash.—Lewis & Clark swimming wrapped up a historic weekend at the 2025 Northwest Conference Championship Meet with two major awards, two more event victories and two more program-record setting performances. 
 
THE BASICS 
 
Men's Swimming – 5^th place out of 9 Teams – 370 Points 
Women's Swimming – 8^th place out of 9 Teams – 208 Points 
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
 
Lewis & Clark College men's swimming junior Ezra Billings and head coach Caitlin DeNise were named the 2025 NWC Men's Swimmer and Men's Coach of the Year at the conclusion of the Meet. 
 
Billings won his third individual event of the weekend on Sunday night with a program-record and B Cut Time in the 100 Free. He teamed up with first year Sam LoCurto, senior Micah Rysavy and junior Zach Martin to win the final event of the weekend – the 400 Free Relay. It was the men's program's first relay victory since the 1988 NWC Championship Meet. Senior Isaac Anderson added a program-record time of his own in the 200 Breaststroke to earn his first career All-Conference accolades. 
 
MEN'S RECAP 
 
Seven Lewis & Clark men's swimmers earned All-Conference honors on the final day of competition at the Weyerhauser King County Aquatic Center. 
 
In the final event of the entire meet, men's swimming earned their first relay victory since 1988. The quartet of Billings, LoCurto, Rysavy and Martin led the 400 Yard Free Relay from wire-to-wire, as they posted a program record time of 3:03.88. They beat their season-best time by 7.88 seconds and crushed the previous program record by 3.58 seconds. It marks the program's fifth-ever win in the event and first since 1988 when Matt Roth, David Cloninger, Mike Power and Jay Bress won in 3:16.83. 
 
Billings put together arguably his best performance of the season on Sunday in the 100 Free. He finished first in prelims with a massive PR time. He shaved off 1.21 seconds off his season-best time to move from second to first all-time in the event and post a B Cut time. He touched the wall in 44.66 seconds. Martin joined him in qualifying for the A Final with a season-best time of 46.56 (sixth place). Rysavy added a PR time of 46.59 to place seventh in the prelims. 
 
In the night session, Billings posted another B Cut time with a mark of 44.70 to outpace the field by 0.66 seconds. Martin just missed out on tying his PR time (46.44) to place seventh, as he finished in 46.46. Rysavy shaved off .08 seconds off his morning collegiate PR, to place eighth overall in 46.51. He ends his collegiate career sixth all-time in the event. 
 
Anderson added the second program record mark of the day in the 200 Breaststroke. The senior shaved 2.17 seconds off his PR in the event to finish fifth in qualifying. His time of 2:09.29 is a new program record and broke the previous program record, set in 2019-20, by 0.85 seconds. He placed eighth in the A Final with a time of 2:12.34 to earn his first career All-Conference award. 
 
Junior Michael Spicer reached the A Final in the 200 Fly. He placed seventh in the morning session with a time of 1:56.65. Spicer notched a fifth-place showing in the A Final with a mark of 1:56.20. 
 
Senior Aidan Ringel earned his second career All-Conference award in the 1,650 Free. He placed seventh in the event with a career-best time of 16:50.27. Ringel moved from sixth place in program history to fifth in the Mile, as he improved his PR time by 3.95 seconds. 
 
First year Isaiah Frei qualified for the B Final in the 200 Backstroke. Frei posted a PR time of 1:59.89 in the prelims to move from 10^th place to seventh in program history. He improved his PR by 2.59 seconds to place 11^th in prelims. In the B Finals, he took 14^th place with a time of 2:02.33. Senior Ian Holmberg also competed in the 200 Backstroke and placed 22^nd with a time of 2:10.38. 
 
LoCurto and sophomore Aidan Beatty each raced in the 100 Free Prelims. LoCurto narrowly missed a spot in the B Finals by placing 17^th overall. He recorded a collegiate PR time of 47.98 (PR by 0.64 seconds). Beatty finished 35^th overall with a collegiate PR time of 57.51 (1.39 second improvement). 
 
Sophomore Colin Ziegler competed in the 200 Breaststroke. He placed 22^nd in the prelims. His time of 2:28.09 was a collegiate PR by 1.63 seconds. 
 
WOMEN'S RECAP 
 
Junior Elise Barton (third) and sophomore Angie Cummings (second) each posted another All-Conference performance to lead women's swimming on Day Four. 
 
Cummings recorded a top-five time in program history in the 200 Backstroke to qualify for the A Final. She placed third out of 23 swimmers in the prelims with a time of 2:10.50. Her time moved her into fourth all-time in the event and was a collegiate PR by 6.79 seconds. She finished fourth in the Finals with a PR time of 2:10.32. Junior Jane Tewinkel reached the B Final in the event. She beat her season-best time by nearly a second to finish 12^th in the prelims with a time of 2:17.00. Tewinkel took 15^th overall in the B Final when she touched the wall in 2:19.06. 
 
Barton led seven Lewis & Clark swimmers in the 100 Free. She reached her third A Final of the week/her career by placing sixth in the prelims. Her time of 53.85 was a PR by 1.12 seconds and moved her into eighth place in program history. Barton took sixth in the A Final in the night session with a time of 54.00. 
 
Senior Ella Stephan finished second on the team and 23^rd overall with a season-best time of 56.89 (season-best by 0.69 seconds). Junior Aniqah Gaffoor took 25^th in the prelims with a time of 57.04. Sophomore Sophie Justus posted a collegiate PR time of 57.97 (PR by 1.76 seconds) to finish 33^rd. Junior Ella Gimon beat her collegiate PR by 1.82 seconds to take 40^th overall (1:01.35). Senior Claire Baco beat her season-best mark by over two seconds to finish 42^nd with a time of 1:05.40. Senior Josephine Mann finished her career with a PR by over 2.07 seconds. Mann finished 45^th with a final time of 1:08.42. 
 
Sophomore Dahlia Linkow and junior AJ Schroeder competed in the 200 Breaststroke. Linkow posted a massive PR time by 5.82 seconds to place 17^th overall. Her time of 2:38.62 put her in 17^th place – just 0.19 off a spot in the B Finals. Schroeder finished 19^th overall with a time of 2:41.02. 
 
First year Claire Hurty placed 17^th in the Mile. She covered 1,650 yards in 19:59.81. 
 
In the final race of their weekend, women's swimming placed seventh in the 400 Free Relay. The team of Cummings, Gaffoor, Stephan and Barton combined for a time of 3:41.79. Their mark was a season-best time by 4.75 seconds. 
 
BY THE NUMBERS

• Billings scored more points than any other individual, men's or women's, at the meet by scoring 60 out of a possible 60 points in his three events. He is the fourth Pioneer to ever win the 100 Free and the first since David Cloninger achieved the feat in 1988. 
• DeNise is the first Pioneers coach to win NWC Coach of the Year in swimming since 2011. Current assistant coach Chris Fantz was named the Co-Women's Coach of the Year in 2011. 
• Across three full days of competition, men's swimming broke nine program records and won four total events. 
• Men's Swimming finished just 18 points behind third-place Whitman College (392) and a mere four points behind fourth-place Linfield (374). The Pioneers improved their total points (370) by nearly 100 compared to 2024 (279) and posted their most points at the NWC Championship Meet since the team scored 367 points in 1988. 
• Women's Swimming finished eighth overall but just 21 points behind seventh-place George Fox (229). The Pioneers 208 points are their most as a program since the 2020 season (220). Lewis & Clark beat their score from a year ago by 15 points. 
• Barton is the first Pioneer women's swimmer to earn All-Conference honors in all three individual events since Gaffoor accomplished the feat in 2023. 
• Billings' time of 44.66 in the 100 Free has him in contention for a spot at NCAA DIII Nationals. Individuals with times of 43.31 or better automatically qualify for the event (A Cut). Swimmers who posted times faster than 45.02 will be considered. Last year, the cutoff line for Nationals in the event was 44.51. 

WHAT'S NEXT 
 
Lewis & Clark anticipates bringing back 17 swimmers for the 2024-25 season (10 women and seven men). The Pioneers should bring back six student-athletes who earned All-Conference honors this weekend.