Meet the Warriors: Bailey Lemmon

By Ron Smith

(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) Bailey Lemmon was just 8 years old when a love of swimming entered her life. That is when Lemmon and her older brother, Connor, plunged into the pool for the first time.

"I had no idea what I was doing," said Lemmon of her eight-year-old self. "I didn't know what any of the strokes were. After a few months to a year, I started to be competitive and was in swim meets. I have been competing since I was nine years old."

It wasn't long before Lemmon discovered that she could swim fast. Through middle school, Lemmon swam with the Cabrillo Threshers under head coach Jim Triplett. "I was going to swim practice every day after school," said Lemmon. "I played volleyball for a little bit in middle school, but other than that it has just been swimming."

Unfortunately, something else entered her life in those early years.

"I started having shoulder pain when I was 10 years old," said Lemmon. "For a majority of my swim career, I have been swimming in pain. When I was younger, we assumed it was overuse. I got good quickly, so I was swimming a lot of yards at a young age and my muscles and body were not completely developed."

Despite the pain, Lemmon loved the pool and continued to swim throughout high school.

"I loved the sport so much that I was willing to do whatever it took," noted Lemmon. "I saw three different physical therapists from middle school through high school. It felt like my shoulder pain would get better and then it would get worse. That was a consistent pattern. 

"The main aspect that would keep me going was my coaches. All of them, including (Westmont head coach) Jill Jones Lin, have been understanding and willing to work with me to figure out what I could actually do in practice. Jill has taken some of that burden from me and leads specialized workouts that relieve my shoulder pain and also focus my sprint training.

"Especially in high school, whenever my shoulder started to hurt I would just kick. In my senior year of high school, I would probably swim 400-500 yards. In a normal practice, you would probably swim 2500 yards. Four hundred yards is our warm-up, but that was all I was able to do. Then, I would kick the rest of the practice. 

"That was definitely a mental battle for me, finding the determination to do that. No one else was kicking in the pool; it was just me. It was difficult to find that kind of push-through."

Despite the pain, Lemmon found a lot of success during her high school years, when she began swimming with the Aptos Cabrillo Swim Club. Because of her speed, Lemmon found herself practicing with an older group of swimmers.  

"Toward the end of high school, I was the only girl who was fast enough to swim with the guys," recalled Lemmon. "So, I held myself to their standards. The time difference between guys and girls in high school can be pretty big. Training with them pushed me all the time because I wanted to keep up with them."

"From 11 to 16 years of age, I was the high point-winner every year," said Lemmon of her club career. "That typically means you are the fastest swimmer overall in your section. Our section included Santa Cruz County, Monterey County and San Benito County."

Like many elite swimmers, Lemmon continued to train with her club team when she entered her freshman year at Scotts Valley High School, joining her high school team for the most part just for the competitions.

"I think every season I, maybe, showed up to one high school practice and then competed at the meets," noted Lemmon. "My club coach (Triplett) was one of the high school coaches in our county and was our county's representative for our section. All the swim coaches respected him and my high school coach trusted him that he knew what I was doing.

"I felt like a leader because I was the fastest person on my high school swim team all four years. Having new people to swim relays with - whom I sometimes just met that day - could be difficult, but also just fun. For me, high school swimming was more of a fun-with-swimming experience."

Lemmon qualified for the CIF-Central Coast Section Championships - one of the most competitive sections in California - in three of her four high school years.

Asked about how she managed to swim fast despite the pain, Lemmon responded, "I think a lot of that came from my kicking training. One of the swimming skills I pride myself on is my underwater skills. Going farther underwater off the block and off my turns than everyone else in the pool definitely contributed to my speed. With that comes breath control. Having strong legs to keep me going when my arms weren't working is all I had to rely on. I just did the best I could."

Lemmon first learned of Westmont when an admissions representative visited her high school during her junior year.

"It was not the school I was going to apply to because Westmont didn't have swimming," noted Lemmon. "When Westmont announced in October of my senior year that they were going to have a swim team, I started to look immediately. Some of the other coaches I had talked to were not responsive or said they weren't interested anymore. My choices started to look slimmer, so I reached out (to Westmont) immediately. I met Jill in November and we very quickly bonded. We had similar views of what we both wanted out of a swim team and what we were looking to do. About a month later, I signed to the swim team.

"Jill was the only female coach I had met with," continued Lemmon. "I have not had a female coach since I was 10 years old. That was a big draw for me. Also, her age – she graduated from Cal Poly not too long ago – was a big draw to have someone whom I could relate to and who would know what her athletes were going through. 

"We talked a lot about leadership and having people who were going to form the legacy of the swim team at Westmont the first season. She mentioned having our relationship with God come first, our academics next and then our swimming. That was important for me because she told me that she cared about us as people, and not just about what we were doing in the pool. 

"Since then, she has shown that. When we were on campus for most of the first year, we had meetings and she was checking in, always asking what she could do to help us. She did everything in her power to do that. She has been my best swim coach to do that. She also kept in touch with us at home during the pandemic."

When Lemmon arrived on campus to start her collegiate career, she found herself in unfamiliar waters. Accustomed to training with the boys from her swim team, Lemmon was suddenly on an all-female team.

"That was strange to me," acknowledged Lemmon. "The first day, walking on the pool deck and seeing all women on the pool deck was not something I had seen at practice in a long time."

The strangeness wore off quickly, however, and Lemmon found herself quickly bonding with her new teammates.

"We all became very close, very quickly," said Lemmon. "I because very close to my roommate, Gaby Rego, who is on the team, and quite a few of the other swimmers. I would call them some of my best friends now. 

"Everybody on the team was close and felt comfortable sharing whatever was going on in their lives, whether that was how they were struggling in the pool or with family issues. The team developed a sense of vulnerability that people felt safe in. Everyone also wanted to improve and get better for the betterment of the team."

Early on, Lemmon found some of her teammates deferring to her in the swim lanes because of her speed, but that is not what Lemmon wanted.

"All of us have a spot on the team and we are all equally valuable and are supposed to be there," said Lemmon. "Not one of us is better than the other just because of our times. We are all there to support each other and all have a specific role. 

"A lot of the swimmers haven't been in the pool for two or three years since they were in high school. Hearing their perspective of getting back in the pool and how their goals were different than mine, helped freshen my perspective."

Lemmon's first year at Westmont also brought a new perspective on her chronic pain.

"Before coming to Westmont, I had seen three physical therapists and had x-rays and still didn't really have any answers. Jill helped me find a naturopathic doctor in Santa Barbara. That helped tremendously. We were able to figure out that I have never been able to activate some of my muscles. 

"I was swimming with all the tiny muscles in the front of my shoulders, which is not what you are supposed to do," explained Lemmon. "That caused a significant amount of pain. Then, my left hip wasn't rotating properly, which has muscles connected to your right shoulder blade across your back. I wasn't able to rotate properly for freestyle specifically because my hip wouldn't rotate properly. 

"That was the first time I had heard answers. That was in February. Since then, I have been doing lots of exercises to strengthen my lats and my hips. I have started to see some results and actually feel those muscles for the first time. I am excited to see what it will look like when I can use all of my body."

Despite continuing to swim with pain throughout her freshman year at Westmont, Lemmon set the standard for sprints. She posted the team's best marks in the 50 and 100 yard freestyle (24.52, 53.98), the 50 and 100 yard backstroke (28.87, 1:00.73), the 50 yard breaststroke (36.25), the 50 yard butterfly (26.65) and the 200 yard individual medley (1:04.19).

"I am happy with my first year from a competitive standpoint," assessed Lemmon. "Naturally, I am a very competitive person and I wasn't sure how that was going to play out on a brand new swim team with people who hadn't swam in a few years. I think all of us wanted to be competitive.

"Even though it was our first season, we were right up there with some of the DI and DII athletes at the conference championships. We showed how competitive and how seriously we were taking it. I was happy with that. 

“At nationals, having quite a few top-16 finishes for our relays spoke to how serious and competitive we had become through the course of the season. I am proud of everyone for stepping up and taking that on.”

At the Pacific Collegiate Swim Conference, Lemmon earned All-PCSC honorable mention honors with a 15th place finish in the 50 yard freestyle (24.54). 

Lemmon qualified for and completed in three individual events at the NAIA National Championship in her inaugural year. She placed 18th in the 50 yard freestyle (24.68), 23rd in the 100 yard freestyle (54.01) and 21st in the 100 yard breaststroke (1:01.24). 

Lemmon also swam in four of the team's five relays at the championship event: the 200 freestyle (12th place, 1:41.91), the 400 yard freestyle (18th place, 3:45.08), the 200 yard medley (12th place, 1:52.61) and the 400 yard medley (18th place, 4:12.29). It was as the leadoff swimmer in the 200 yard freestyle relay that she set the school record for the 50 yard freestyle at 24.52.

After competing at nationals, the team returned home for spring break but was split up due to airline delays.

"Olivia Huebner, our assistant coach Brooklynn Jervis, and I ended up on a different flight than everyone else on the way back," reported Lemmon. "We flew back to Santa Barbara but everyone else ended up in Orange County and drove back. I was supposed to grab my stuff and fly home, but I ended up missing my original flight home since our flight from nationals was delayed. I spent the night at Westmont then got up very early the next morning to fly home.

"I remember at the airport when our team had to split up, I was on the phone with my mom trying to figure out a new flight for me to come home (for spring break) when they were boarding their flight. So, I didn't get to physically say goodbye to a lot of them, which was pretty sad.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Lemmon did not see most her teammates in person for another six months.

"Being with the swim team every day and then not seeing them was very different," noted Lemmon. "Most of the days we had weight training. I was getting up at 5:30 and was with them for a few hours doing that and swimming, then go to class, then eat lunch with them, then go to class, then eat dinner with them. I spent the majority of my time with the women on the swim team. To be ripped apart from them felt weird."

Thanks to technology, however, the team kept in touch through the rest of the academic year and over the summer. 

"We had a weekly team meeting with Jill on Zoom, so I got to see their faces and talk to them," said Lemmon, who also kept in touch through FaceTime and text messaging.

The pandemic also affected Lemmon's ability to train while at home, given that all the local pools had closed.

"I just got back in the pool last week for the first time since nationals," reported Lemmon. "So it's been about six months I've been out of the pool. I started doing ocean training in the beginning of May and stopped doing that in the beginning in August. I was going once or twice a week, but it is different from training in a pool. 

"The days I wasn't doing ocean swimming, I had the workouts I was doing at home. I have been doing 'drylands'. Non-swimmers always laugh at the phrase, 'drylands', but we are so used to that term. Anything not done in the pool is drylands."

As she enters her sophomore season, Lemmon has some definite ideas regarding what she would like to accomplish over the next three years.

"Since I've found some answers for my shoulder pain, which has looked promising, I would love by the end of my time at Westmont to have at least one practice where I don't have shoulder pain," offered Lemmon.

"In terms of competition – returning to nationals every year is definitely a goal. The NAIA just updated the time standards, so qualifying this year will be harder than it was the previous season. 

"One of my swim goals is to swim the 100 butterfly, which is one of my best events. I wasn't able to swim it my freshman year because of my shoulders. So, hopefully, with some of the strengthening I'm doing, I will be able to compete in that event again.

"As a team, I would love to see us maintain the level of comfortability and vulnerability we have created. On the pool deck, our team has a space where all of us feel comfortable sharing our goals and our struggles. Another goal is growing together in every aspect - in the pool, academically and in our faith. Jill has done a great job leading us and meshing all of those together."

Lemmon's passions have not only led her to participate in the inaugural year of Westmont Swimming, but also in the new film studies minor at Westmont. 

"My parents have always said that after college I will be living in Hollywood," said Lemmon. "I hope that for myself as well.

"Every semester, I have taken classes that are new to Westmont. Last semester, I took a class that was offered for the first time – Introduction to Digital Film Making with Sean Pratt. That class has been my favorite so far. His direction and feedback from my work in the class encouraged me and propelled me to keep pursuing film and entertainment.

"This semester, I am taking a new screenwriting class with Professor Wendy Jackson. The feedback from my professors of the promise they see in me, reassures my creativity and my passion to want to keep going after it. It can be a risky industry to get into and can be defeating if you are not 100% sure of yourself."

Lemmon's passion for working in the entertainment industry was furthered by her attendance at a Santa Barbara tradition. 

"I was able to attend the Santa Barbara International Film Festival this year in January," said Lemmon. "It was one of the most memorable and important experiences I think I have ever had."

A communication studies major, Lemmon found her first-term class with Dr. Deborah Dunn in public speaking to be, "very difficult, but I loved it - even though I would get nervous before doing speeches. I really loved her style of teaching and how she personalized the class.

"Especially my second semester, spiritually I grew a lot," offered Lemmon. "The first semester, I think I was overwhelmed with the newness of everything. I kind of put my relationship with God on the back burner and was trying to handle everything that was happening to me. 

"My second semester, I took New Testament with Dr. Caryn Reeder. That was transformational in my faith, learning so much of the context of the Bible. Learning so much of what was happening to the people in those times and how the social situations that we read about in the New Testament are similar is to what is happing today renewed my faith. I think, sometimes, when I read the Bible before it was hard to understand why those words were relevant to me. Seeing the similarities and the human stories that are in the Bible - learning the context - humanized it for me and made it relatable."

Lemmon's Westmont experience included an opportunity to engage with athletes outside of athletics.

"I went to so many volleyball game and basketball games," recalled Lemmon. "Going out and seeing the other athletes was a part of the college experience that lived up to expectations for me.

"I am passionate about women in sports," noted Lemmon. "My first semester at Westmont, in my public speaking class, one of my speeches was about the media representation of women in sports. During this time, we have seen a lot of leadership by the WNBA. Translating that to my own life on the swim team at Westmont, I am very passionate about seeing that the female athletes are heard and are supported just as much as the men are. I am very passionate about that. Whatever I do at Westmont, I hope that it is glorifying to all the other female athletes and that we can shine a bit of light on all of them as well."

The women's swim team will return to the pool in October to begin training for the 2020-21 season. Seven new athletes will join 10 returning swimmers for the upcoming season. Though the pandemic has canceled some fall competition dates, the Warriors are scheduled to dive into the new season on Friday, November 20 at the La Verne Winter Invitational.