Seeking to find a way to compete in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Westmont women’s swimming team participated in a virtual swim meet on Saturday.
The Warriors competed against College of Idado, Loyola, La., and Midland, Neb. All four teams competed in their own pools 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.
“Honestly, it felt like a meet, even though it was just Westmont swimmers,” said Westmont freshman Cayla Won of the unusual competition. “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),” she said. “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.”
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 in 5:51.68 in the field of nine competitors.
“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,” said Bienias, the school record holder in the event at 5:21.07.
Bienias also placed fourth in the 200 backstroke with a time of 2:22.00.
Freshman Bridget Hoth won the 50 freestyle race in 25.61. She took second in the 100 freestyle (57.27) and fourth in the 100 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),” said Lin. “Right now, we are trying to get as many races together as we can.”
— Noozhawk sports editor Barry Punzal can be reached at bpunzal@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk Sports on Twitter: @NoozhawkSports. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.