BOISE, Idaho—Senior Ezra Billings reset his own program record and finished second overall in the 50 Free and the men's 200 Free Relay team posted the second-best time in program history, to lead Lewis & Clark College swimming on Day One of the 2026 Northwest Conference Championship Meet.
 
THE BASICS 
 
Men's Swimming – 7^th out of 9 Teams – 73 Points 
Women's Swimming – 8^th out of 9 Teams – 57 Points
 
HOW IT HAPPENED 
 
Four Lewis & Clark swimmers earned spots in Friday night's Finals and both teams raced their first two of five relays on the weekend.
 
MEN'S RECAP 
 
Billings put together the first All-Conference performance of the weekend for the River Otters and senior Michael Spicer cracked the top-10 in the 500 Free with a career-best performance. 
 
Billings placed first in Friday morning's 50 Free Prelims. The senior broke his own record in the event with a time of 20.27 to place first out of 45 swimmers. In the Finals, he notched a time of 20.37 to finish second overall. 
 
Five other Lewis & Clark swimmers competed in the 50 Free Prelims. Sophomore Sam LoCurto and senior Zach Martin just missed out on spots in the B Final. The duo finished back-to-back in 19^th and 20^th places with times of 21.80 and 21.86. Three swimmers finished tied for 16^th with a mark of 21.78. Junior Colin Ziegler posted a collegiate and career-best time of 23.53 in the 50 Free to finish in 35^th place. First year Kofi Franklin added a collegiate-best mark of 26.07 to take 42^nd place. First year Max Zuberbuhler won his heat with a collegiate and career-best time of 26.38 to finish 43^rd overall. 
 
Spicer was the other men's swimmer to advance to a Final on Friday. The senior notched a time of 4:55.99 in the 500 Free to place 14^th in the morning session. He shaved off over five seconds from his time and beat his career-best mark by over a second to place 13^th on Friday night. Spicer placed 13^th overall with a time of 4:50.08. First year Reid McAllister placed 25^th in the prelims with a collegiate and career-best time of 5:12.80. 
 
The men's 200 Free Relay notched the third top-10 mark of the day for men's swimming. The quartet of Billings, LoCurto, Spicer and Martin finished in 1:24.83 to beat their season-best time by over a second. Their time put them in fourth-place overall. 
 
In the final race of the night, Lewis & Clark placed eighth in the 400 Medley Relay. The quartet of junior Isaiah Frei, Ziegler, McAllister and Zuberbuhler combined for a time of 3:55.13. 

WOMEN'S RECAP 
 
Senior Elise Barton and junior Angie Cummings each advanced to B Finals and the 400 Medley Relay notched a season-best mark to place seventh-overall. 
 
Barton led Lewis & Clark in the 50 Free. The senior finished in a tie for 10^th in the prelims with a mark of 25.28. She came back in the B Final and placed second in her heat and 10^th overall with a mark of 25.07. 
 
Six other River Otters competed in the 50 Free Prelims. Senior Aniqah Gaffoor just missed the B Final with a season-best time of 25.57 to place 18^th. Fellow senior AJ Schroeder took 32^nd place with a season-best time of 26.32. 
 
The final four Lewis & Clark swimmers in the 50 Free all registered collegiate and career-best times in the event. Senior Ella Gimon placed 39^th with a time of 26.82. Junior Ainsley Rios (28.11) and sophomore Xandra Kuenz (29.05) each beat their career PR by over 1.30 seconds to finish 46^th and 48^th. Senior Emma Wind posted a time of 35.59 to finish 53^rd. 
 
Cummings led a quartet of Lewis & Clark swimmers in the 500 Free. She placed 15^th in the morning session with a time of 5:31.12 to advance to the B Final. On Friday night, she shaved 4.03 seconds off her time to take 13^th place. Cummings posted a final time of 5:27.09. 
 
Sophomore Claire Hurty finished the 500 Free with a season-best mark of 5:46.83 to place 23^rd. First year Zoe Thorpe improved her collegiate-best time by 11.84 seconds to finish in 24^th overall (5:46.92). Fellow first year Emily McAnally came across in a collegiate-best time of 6:01.40 to finish 30^th overall. 
 
Lewis & Clark added a season-best time in the 400 Medley Relay to finish in seventh place. The quartet of Cummings, Schroeder, Gaffoor and Barton came from behind in their heat to place second overall. They registered a time of 4:07.44 – an improvement of 3.04 seconds off their previous best time. 
 
The River Otters placed eighth overall in the 200 Free Relay. Gaffoor, Gimon, Thorpe and Schroeder combined for a time of 1:45.03. 
 
BY THE NUMBERS 

• Billings broke the program record in the 50 Free for the fifth time on Friday. Andrew Butcher had set the previous program record of 20.97 in the 2017-18 season. 
• Spicer beat his previous-best mark in the 500 Free by 1.09 seconds. He now ranks in the top-eight in program history in three individual events.  
• Cummings made her NWC Championship debut in the 500 Free on Friday. She still has her two best events of the meet to come on Saturday and Sunday (100 and 200 backstroke). 
• The men's 200 Free Relay team's time was the second-best in program history. They trail only last year's team, that posted a time of 1:24.02 at the NWC Championship Meet. 
• Billings' time in the 50 Free was his second B Cut mark of the year in the event. The NCAA B Cut is set at 20.36 heading into the championship season. 

WHAT'S NEXT 
 
Lewis & Clark will return to the Idaho Central Aquatic Center (ICAC) on Saturday morning at 9:30 a.m. (Rocky Mountain time) for Day Two of the NWC Championship Meet. Student-athletes will compete in the 400 IM, 100 Fly, 200 Free, 100 Breaststroke and 100 Backstroke in the morning and the 200 Medley and 800 Freestyle Relays as part of the Finals session at 5 p.m. (Rocky Mountain).