By Jacob Norling
February 10, 2023
 
(MONTEREY PARK, Calif.) Westmont Women's Swimming continued to set new records on Friday, when they competed in day three of the Pacific Collegiate Swim Conference Championships. Westmont saw two of their Warriors earn All-PCSC status in the evening, and several other Warriors collected new lifetime bests as the day wore on.
 
PRELIMINARIES:
 
The Warriors wasted no time on Friday morning when a program record was broken during the first race of the day. That honor belonged to Bailey Lemmon, who broke three program records in one event back on Thursday. This time, Lemmon led the way for Westmont in the 100 fly, finishing with a program-best time of 57.95. 
 
Lemmon also finished seventh overall in the prelims, earning her a spot in the championship heat on Friday evening.
 
Joining Lemmon in the finals of the 100 fly was Emma Diehl, who posted a season-best time of 59.53, and Rian Lewandowski, who posted a season-best mark of 59.64.
 
Diehl's time was the 18th-fastest of prelims, while Lewandowski posted the 20th-best. For Diehl, it was the first time in her career finishing the 100 fly under a minute.
 
Daisy Marquardt was Westmont's lone competitor in the 400 yard IM, and the freshman qualified for the finals with a lifetime-best time of 4:42.95. 
 
The first-year trimmed 4.82 seconds off her previous best mark.
 
"Coach Jill has really been pushing me to focus on mentality," reflected Marquardt. "We've been focusing on swimming the race in a smart way, rather than just sprinting as fast as I can out of the gate. I was a lot calmer going into this one and had a good plan.
 
"I've always had a tendency of just all out sprinting once I dive in, but today I did a good job of controlling myself."
 
The Warriors had several athletes competing in the 200 yard freestyle, with Olivia Garrison headlining the results with a season-best time of 1:56.72. Garrison, who earned a spot in the finals with an 18th-place finish in prelims, trimmed 3.50 seconds off of her previous best.
 
Emma Bustamante snagged the penultimate spot in the 200 free finals with a 23rd-place finish, completing the race in 1:57.56. For Bustamante, it was a lifetime-best time in the event.
 
"Jill has had us go through a ton of focused sets during workouts lately," explained Bustamante. "For me, she's been putting me in with the distance groups and I think that's really helped me fine-tune my race strategy and get my pace down.
 
"For me, the change in strategy has been really kicking and then focusing on going out faster than I think I should. When I do that, I'm able to really focus on racing the whole time."
 
McKenzie Rion narrowly missed qualifying for finals after finishing the 200 in 1:58.60, which was the 25th-fastest in prelims. Still, the freshman swam a season-best 200 by 4.59 seconds. Also swimming a lifetime best in the 200 was Lauren Healy, who earned an NAIA B-Standard time with a mark of 2:02.46. Morgan Bienias swam a B-Standard in the 200 as well, finishing the race in 2:02.14.
 
Ella Chaisson stole her daily headline later on in the morning, this time competing in the 100 yard breaststroke. Chaisson swam a program-record 1:06.63 in prelims, which earned her a fifth-place finish and a spot in the finals on Friday evening.
 
Upon seeing her time Chaisson could not keep a smile off her face for several minutes, and the same could be said for her coach when she found the sophomore after the race.
 
"I have never seen you swim like that," a proud Jill Jones Lin told Chaisson.
 
"You know, I'm trying to make the 100 breaststroke my event this year," revealed an excited Chaisson. "I'm not a big sprinter, so I've been trying to get my stroke rate up, and I think it's working. I've been sprinting a lot with Abby, Daisy, and Rian during practice, and they're big sprinters. Swimming with them has been a huge help and I'm excited to keep going."
 
The Warriors rounded out the morning session with the 100 yard backstroke, led by Lewandowski who earned an NAIA B-Standard with a time of 1:00.58. Lewandowski also finished 15th in the event, which clinched her a spot in the finals on Friday evening.
 
FINALS:
 
In the evening Westmont had a Warrior-pair earn All-PCSC honors, beginning with Lemmon in the 100 fly. In the championship heat of the event, Lemmon repeated the same feat she achieved in the morning, which was setting a program record.
 
After swimming a 57.95 in the morning, Lemmon swam a 57.32 during finals. With a fifth-place finish, Lemmon was labeled All-PCSC. 
 
"The 100 fly is definitely the hardest one for me, physically," said Lemmon. "I haven't swam this race in four years, since I was a senior in high school, because of my shoulder injuries. It's exciting to swim it, but it's no secret how tough it is.
 
"My legs are dead, but it was awesome to put my heart into this race today."
 
Also competing in the 100 fly finals were Diehl and Lewandowski. After swimming a season-best 59.53 in the morning, Diehl one-upped herself with a season-best 59.25, the 18th-fastest time during finals.
 
Lewandowski swam a 59.96, which placed her at 22nd during finals.
 
Continuing the trend of not letting personal records last a full 24 hours was Marquardt, when she competed in the finals of the 400 yard IM. After swimming a lifetime-best 4:42.95 in the morning, Marquardt turned it up a notch to finish in 4:39.99.
 
Not only did the freshman set a new lifetime-best, but Marquardt also clinched her first trip to the NAIA National Championships.
 
"I couldn't be more excited," smiled the freshman. "Coach Jill told me to go into it as if it were my last 400 IM of the season, so I really gave it my all. I tried to back off a little in the beginning so I had more breath throughout, and it worked out. I was able to still have enough left in the end to finish strong.
 
The Warriors continued the pattern of breaking records in the 200 yard freestyle finals, when Garrison broke a program-record with a time of 1:54.88. After setting a personal lifetime-best in the morning, Garrison trimmed nearly two seconds off in the evening, this time breaking not only her own record, but Bienas' Westmont record of 1:56.29.
 
"I'm very happy with how things have gone so far," said the sophomore. "I've put in a lot of work for this, and Jill's been so supportive and so encouraging. My teammates have been amazing as well. It's been wonderful to see everyone else improve so much as well. I feel like this meet has been really great for everyone."
 
Also competing in the 200 free finals was Bustamante, who finished with a time of 1:57.77.
 
After swimming a program-record 1:06.63 to earn a place in the championship heat of the 100 breast, Chaisson joined her teammates in breaking another fresh record.
 
This time, Chaisson earned All-PCSC honors with a fifth-place finish, and a new program-best time of 1:05.75.
 
"I've been given this great opportunity, and I just want to see how far I can take it," offered Chaisson. "My teammates are so loving and so cute, and it just makes it so fun having such supportive teammates. Everyone feels like my sisters on this team and it's really special to be a part of it."
 
Next up in Friday night's finals was Lewandowski, this time competing in the 100 backstroke. With the final individual event of the night, the senior finished it off with a time of 1:01.41.
 
"The 100 back is easily the hardest 100," admitted the senior. "I prefer to swim the hundreds, those are usually my events, but the 100 back is the toughest of them all. It's the hardest on your lungs, it's the hardest of your legs, but it's still one of my favorites."
 
The Warriors ended Friday night with the 400 yard medley relay, which featured two sets of Warriors. First, Bienias, Abigail Rickard, Bustamante and Leighton Bell combined to post a time of 4:09.71. Then, Lewandowski, Chaisson, Diehl, and Lemmon swam it in 4:00.8. The latter was the seventh-fastest relay at night's end.
 
At the end of the day, it was the underclassmen who most stood out to the club's head coach.
 
"I'm super impressed with our freshmen today," said Jones Lin. "To be able to compete in such a high intensity meet, and to do so well on day three when you're exhausted, it says a lot. I'm really proud of Daisy for finishing super-fast in her 400 IM.
 
"She swam a 28.50 on her last 50, which is insane. Then Emma Bustamante was able to make it back in the 200 free, and Emma Diehl in the 100 fly just absolutely went for it. It was just a really great showing all around."
 
The final day of the PCSC Championships begin at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, when Westmont's Morgan Bienias and McKenzie Rion compete in the 200 yard backstroke.