Courtesy of Ella Ruark
On Feb. 13, swimmers boarded a bus from Lewis & Clark up to Federal Way, Washington to compete in the Northwest Conference Championships. There, they competed for four days, shattering records and winning events. The swimmers, led by a strong senior cohort, placed well and dropped times in many events.
Senior Aidan Ringel ’25 spoke on his team’s accomplishments over the season, highlighting the success of the men’s team at the conference meet.
“The men’s team had a lot of time drops and really great swims,” Ringel said. “We won our first gold medal since 1995, and not only did we pick up a couple gold medals, we also picked up quite a few silvers.”
Ezra Billings ’26 and Micah Rysavy ’25 featured prominently in the team’s successes. Both set program records, and the men’s team totaled nine broken program records. The team’s accolades were similarly impressive, as the men’s team took home 13 all-conference honors.
Billings was also named the Northwest Conference Swimmer of the Year, and Coach Caitlin DeNise earned the Men’s Coach of the Year award. These awards mark major victories for LC’s swim program, and stand among the team’s most significant awards in recent decades.
Ringel expressed his happiness over the success of the team, as well as his optimism for the returning class to carry the torch he and his fellow seniors are passing on to them.
“We have built a really great team over my four years of being here, we are leaving it in some really great and fast hands and I think the team will be able to go on to do some really great things,” Ringel said. “We’ve got a really strong coach, and we’ve got a lot of great swimmers who are going to be coming back to the team.”
The women’s team also garnered many successes at the conference meet. Elise Barton ’26 addressed her teammate’s accomplishments and their performance in the meet, highlighting their consistent improvement.
“We dropped a lot of time,” Barton said. “We had a lot of new PRs, and people swam really well. We had a lot of heat winners and people hitting goal times, which was really awesome.”
The women’s team earned many individual accolades as well, with Barton earning her three all-conference honors in multiple events, and her teammate Angie Cummings ’27 earning two of her own.
Barton also spoke on the team’s future, sharing her disappointment in the loss of the seniors, but hope for the future of the program.
“I am sad that the seniors are leaving, I feel like they’ve done a really good job with creating a really good team atmosphere,” Barton said. “I feel like Conference this year really motivated people … so I’m pretty excited for next year as well.”
With the success the team has earned in this past season, and the up-and-coming talent that they have, hopes are high for many wins in the coming years.
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