By Ron Smith
January 15, 2024
 
(FAIRBANKS, Alaska) For the second year in a row, Westmont Swim traveled north for a two dual meets with the Nanooks of Alaska Fairbanks. The competition proved to be well matched for the Warriors. On the first day, the Nanooks won 103.5 to 101.5, then won again on the second day 105-101. On both days, it came down to the final race.
 
"We had a really great day and meet," said Westmont's head coach Jill Lin of the first day. "We surprised ourselves with a lot of wins we didn't expect and a lot of close races we were able to win. The biggest one started out with the 1000 yard freestyle with Grace McAnear winning, which was not anticipated. She was able to pull ahead of the Fairbanks swimmer and crushed it on the finish.
 
McAnear completed the 40-length race in a time of 11:08.43, beating out her nearest competitor by more than seven seconds.
 
"In the 200 yard freestyle, Olivia Garrison pulled out a win by 0.01 seconds, which was an impressive finish," reported Lin. "Emma Bustamante getting third for that race helped increase our score."
 
Garrison finished in a time of 2:02.33 and Bustamante touched the wall in a time of 2:04.57.
 
"Emma Diehl won the 50 yard freestyle (26.25) for a huge win and Willow Pezone came in third (26.94) to help the team," said Lin.
 
"In the 200 IM, McKenzie Rion finished third (2:24.10) and grabbed some points for us," noted Lin. "She is not typically an individual medley swimmer but has embraced that this season and has been showing a ton of improvement.
 
"Ella Chaisson won the 100 yard butterfly (1:00.010 and Emma Diehl finished second (1:01.89), beating out the Fairbanks swimmer by 0.1 second for another close race.
 
"The entire meet was, 'neck-and-neck'. It was such an even match-up for most races. There was no guaranteed winner. It was back and forth the whole time and really fun to watch.
 
"In the 100 yard backstroke, Ella came in second (59.55) and Hannah DeSoto, who embraced the backstroke for the first time this season, was able to tie for third (1:05.81). That was a big deal for us.
 
"In the 500 freestyle, Olivia, Grace and McKenzie really attacked that race, another hard distance event to swim, and raced really well."
 
Garrison took second in a time of 5:27.10, McAnear placed fourth and Rion finished fifth in times of 5:33.01 and 5:42.01 respectively.
 
"We knew that Fairbanks was going to have a really fast breaststroker," explained Lin. "Abby Rickard was able to stay as close to her as possible in the 100 yard breaststroke and pull off a second-place finish (1:12.57).
 
"It came down to the 400 freestyle relay at the end of the race," said Lin. "We weren't able to pull off the win. We finished second and third, but we needed the win to win the meet. We ended up losing by two points. That shows how close a match-up it was and how exciting the meet was.
 
The next morning, Westmont reported back to the Patty Center Pool for a second meet with the Nanooks.
 
"I thought the second day was going to be our worst day, based on our lineup and having to race again within 24 hours," said Lin. As it turned out, her swimmers surprised her with another competitive outing.
 
"It started off with the 200 yard medley relay. We got second and third with some really great splits," said Lin.
 
The Warriors team of Chaisson, Rickard, Bustamante and Diehl took second in a time of 1:56.44 while Katlyn McCurtain, Kelly Neill, Daisy Marquardt and Pezone placed third with a time of 2:01.35.
 
"In the 1000 yard freestyle, Fairbanks stacked that race with their top-two 1000 swimmers and Grace finished third (11:19.50), just a little bit off of the time she had swam the day before. It is so challenging to swim the 1000 a second time within a 14-hour span.
 
"In the 200 yard freestyle, we threw Ella Chaisson in there and she got second place with a solid time (2:01.45). McKenzie Rion came in fourth (2:03.56) to help with more points.
 
"In the 50 yard freestyle, we went one-two-three with Emma Diehl (26.62), Emma Bustamante (26.73) and Willow (26.77). That was an unexpected result and scoring 16 points in that race was huge.
 
"In the 400 yard individual medley Olivia finished second (4:56.94) and was a couple of seconds behind first place.
 
"Emma Bustamante won the 200 yard butterfly (2:20.80) with a really great swim. She went out aggressively and was able to hold on. Hannah DeSoto finished third with a season best time for her 2:26.43). It was an overall great swim and I am really excited for Hannah.
 
"Willow came in second in the 100 yard freestyle (57.78) and had a great finish at the end. Ella Chaisson came in second in the 200 yard backstroke with a lifetime best time (2:10.78), which was exciting for her.
 
"The 500 yard freestyle was a neck-and-neck race the whole time. The stress of being in that race was intense and it was cat-and-mouse the whole time. Olivia (5:28.36) and Grace (5:29.22) finished second and third in an awesome race.
 
"We finished off the individual events with the 200 yard breaststroke, which we didn't expect to win. However, Abby killed it and raced super hard for the finish to take first (2:37.99). Kelly just missed out on second place, barely getting out-touched (2:41.67). Ashley Ream was super close too with a fourth-place finish 2:42.17).
 
"At that point, we went into the final relay tied. We had a little pep talk with the team about the importance of being able to rise up and what it would take to win the meet. They were amped and excited, but, unfortunately, we were unable to pull off the win.
 
"We were about a half a second behind Fairbanks with a time of 1:44.19. There were some impressive splits. We threw in Olivia Garrison on the end, who is our distance swimmer but someone I can always count on. She pulled off a 25.4, for the Warriors' fastest relay split.
 
"Overall, it was a super exciting, intense, fast meet. I am really proud of them. They gave everything they had and we did the best we could. We came so close to being able to pull off the win. It was fun to have even competition to be able to rise up and see what challenges we could overcome."
 
Westmont's next meet will be on Saturday, January 27 when the takey on Loyola Marymount in a dual meet in Los Angeles.