Courtesy: Westmont Athletics
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) While last year brought an abundance of new experiences in the inaugural year of Westmont Women’s Swimming, the Warriors’ second year is off to perhaps even more unfamiliar territory. Seeking to find a way to compete in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Warriors participated today in a virtual swim meet.
The event involved teams from four schools – College of Idaho, Loyola (La.), Midland (Neb.) and Westmont – each of which competed in its own pools. All four venues started the meet at 9:00 a.m. PDT and followed the same order of events. Each school provided swim officials and an automated timing system to record results. After each race, times were sent to the College of Idaho, which served as the ‘host’, to be tabulated into final places and team scores.
“We are trying to come up with whatever meets we can,” said Westmont head coach Jill Jones Lin about why she was eager to enter her team in the event. While she was happy to see her team competing, Jones Lin understood that it was not ideal. “If you are the only one in an event, or if there is a big difference in your time and your teammate’s time, there is not as much competition. It also takes a little bit of the pressure off, so there are benefits to that.”
“Honestly, it felt like a meet, even though it was just Westmont swimmers,” reflected Westmont freshman Cayla Won. “With all the timing stuff, I definitely felt like it was different than practice.”
Sophomore Morgan Bienias had a different perspective. “It is a little hard as a competition because you just have your teammates (to race). It feels like practice a little bit, so it is hard to get that motivation. But, a lot of us did well supporting each other and trying to get our spirits up so we could swim fast and not feel like it was a practice.”
“They were surprisingly faster than I thought, considering a lot of them had not raced since February or March,” said Jones Lin of her athletes’ performances. “Some had not been swimming this whole time. It was encouraging to see they weren’t that far off their times. We have only been training for ‘three-ish’ weeks in the pool.”
The Warriors finished second out of the four teams, tallying 425 points to Midland’s 548. The College of Idaho placed third with 409 points and Loyola recorded 298 points.
Bienias won the 500 yard freestyle with a time of 5:43.11, while Won placed second with a time of 5:51.68 in the field of nine competitors.
“I felt like I was doing well and was sprinting,” said Bienias. “It felt smooth and felt like my technique was good. My time was not as good as my other times from before, but considering it is the first meet of the season, it was pretty good.”
Bienias is the school record holder in the 500 yard freestyle with a time of 5:21.07.
“In the 500 free, I felt like my legs warmed up midway through,” reported Won. “I pushed through it and got a time out of it.”
Bienias also posted a fourth place finish in the 200 yard backstroke with a time of 2:22.00.
“The 200 backstroke is probably the hardest race for me. It takes a lot out of my legs, but it wasn’t too bad.”
Freshman Bridget Hoth won the women’s 50 yard freestyle race, completing the two-lap race in a time of 25.61.
“Bridget was just off the preliminary qualification time (25.58),” noted Jones Lin. “That was exciting for her to do that.”
Hoth also placed second in the 100 yard freestyle (57.27) and fourth in the 100 yard backstroke (1:04.09).
The meet ended with the 200 yard freestyle relay in which the Warrior team of Hoth, Kassy Gregory, Rachel Peden, and Won placed third with a time of 1:48.21.
While no additional meets are currently on the Warriors’ schedule prior to the end of December, Jones Lin is hoping to add another virtual meet before the calendar changes to 2021.
“We are also trying to get together a meet in January or February where we can qualify (for nationals),” added the coach. “Right now, we are trying to get as many races together as we can.”
