Record Rewind: Record-Breaking Bruin Athletes

By: Elijah Dapkus

Claire Fountain, facing a 1-0 count with two runners in scoring position, received a golden opportunity to drive a base hit into the right-centerfield gap and put away a feisty Whitworth University squad.

Claire Fountain photographed by Beth Merritt.

She did the universe one better, slamming a three-run homer over the right field wall for the 42nd time in her career. Her home run clinched a Bruin victory, a series win, and the #2 seed in the Northwest Conference (NWC) Tournament. As far as George Fox University (GFU) softball is concerned, that’s probably all that truly matters. But this home run was uniquely important. With that shot, Fountain tied the school record for most career home runs set last year by Savannah Vargas. While Vargas’s mark may stand for less than a year, and Fountain’s new one will fall too, their achievements reflect their growth, commitment, and no-nonsense gameplay as GFU athletes. We’ll admire them for these traits long after their names move down the leaderboard.

Some records, like the one for most career home runs in softball, last a short time. Others, like the fastest men’s 10,000 meter run, seem to last forever. For 31 years, Mark Mohnen’s 30:42.74 was the school best no Bruin runner could approach. In an age where athletes are growing bigger, moving faster, working day and night, and breaking records left and right, some marks were just built to stand the test of time.

If there’s one person who has made it his mission to defeat time, it’s Peter Weiss. On March 6, 2020, Weiss participated in what was likely his first collegiate 10K. He finished with a time of 35:04.53 among a pack of GFU runners. As he stumbled across, he grappled at his watch and his face morphed into the look of someone who knew they could run faster. On April 13, 2022, Weiss competed in the 10K at the famed Bryan Clay Invite. He smashed the old school record by over a minute with a blistering 29:40.36. His teammates, who bought a FloTrack subscription just to watch their man, went berserk watching him live.

At the NWC Swimming Championships, Levi Gibson clung to an eighth overall seed (1:01.58) entering the 100 Breaststroke preliminaries. After watching five swimmers eclipse his seed time in the heat before, there was doubt Gibson would even make the A Final heat. But he had to try. Gibson went toe-to-toe with the heavily favored Pacific Lutheran University (PLU) senior Seth Koivisto, and they quickly distanced themselves from the field. Just as Koivisto began to pull away, Gibson kicked into a gear he’d never kicked into before. With each stroke he inched past Koivisto, until there was no more of him to surpass. He was in front, all alone. As he finished, he turned to look at the scoreboard and gasped. He looked around in disbelief, before taking another long look at his time: 56.55, a personal record by nearly three seconds, and one of the most shocking school records of the year.

Abbey Nardella and Adin Williams, a duo of Paralympic Swimming prodigies, both tackled grueling practices and fierce competition this season. Their results reflect the work they’ve put in: on January 29, 2022, Nardella (3:21.25) and Williams (2:37.23) each set U.S. para swimming records in their respective classifications in the 200 Butterfly. Then, they did it again. At the NWC Swimming Championships, they backed up their record-setting performances from just two weeks earlier with even better marks of 3:18.14 and 2:30.17, respectively. As they each completed their final swims of the season, they received ovations from the Federal Way crowd.

Abbey Nardella photographed by Naji Saker.

Adin Williams photographed by Naji Saker.

The women’s golf team produced yet another moment of school-transcendent record-setting. At the Culturame Classic in Canby, Oregon, Avery Kageyama, Makensie Toole, Liana Brown, and Alison Takamiya put together a scorching second-day team performance for the books. After falling three strokes behind Pomona-Pitzer College in round one, GFU’s top four women golfers shot 287 strokes (-1) and set a new Culturame Classic women’s team scoring record in the process. After a narrow third-place finish at the Division III National Championships last spring, the Bruins appear hungry to reach even higher.

Women’s golf team. Photo courtesy: Smug Mug

Many more Bruin athletes and teams set school records this year. While these performances are quantifiable, their value to their teams are not. To all Bruin athletes, past and present: never stop shooting for the moon. Keep hitting, throwing, pulling, kicking, running, and swinging with everything you’ve got. It’s paying off.

More records set in 2021-22:

Baseball:

Team - Season Stolen Bases (90+)

Women’s Golf:

Team - Scoring Record (285; -3)

Men’s/Women’s Swimming School Records:

Hunter Bartoo - 400 I.M. (4:17.77)

Levi Gibson - 50 Freestyle (21.16)

Olivia Gibson - 100 Butterfly (57.96)

Olivia Gibson - 200 Freestyle (1:55.55)

Audrey LeMoss - 500 Freestyle (5:20.03)

Women’s Swimming - 800 Free Relay (7:58.35)

Track and Field School Records (Indoor):

Jessie Bailey - 800m (2:19.73)

Levi Gibson - Pole Vault (15-04.50 ft.-in.)

Tayler Phillips - 60m Hurdles (8.50)

Andrew Quach - Long Jump (23-05.50 ft.-in.)

Peter Weiss - 3000m (8:26.11)

Alison Young - Pole Vault (12-04.50 ft.-in.)

Women’s Track and Field - Distance Medley Relay (12:24.34)

U.S. Para Swimming Records:

Abbey Nardella - 100 Butterfly (1:27.51)

Volleyball:

Sophia Lawrence - Career Digs (1829)