By Ron Smith
January 8, 2024
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) Westmont Swimming hosted a tri-meet on Saturday at the campus pool with The Master's and Simpson and used the occasion to honor two seniors in their final performances at home.
 
"Overall we had a good meet," assessed Westmont's head coach Jill Lin. "Despite being edged out by Master's in the end, the team fought hard and our distance swimmers really carried the team today."
 
The Warriors were outscored 143-119 by The Master's in the double-dual meet while defeating Simpson 208-23.
 
"Olivia Garrison fought hard for a first place finish in the 1650 yard freestyle, a third place finish in the 500 yard freestyle, and 10 minutes later, a third place finish in the 100 yard butterfly," pointed out Lin. "Grace McAnear swam a gutsy 1650 and 500 to secure second place finishes in both."
 
Garrison's time of 19:05.51 in the 1650 gave her nearly a four-second edge over teammate Grace McAnear who posted a time of 19:09.30. Emma Robinson made it a top-three sweep for the Warriors with a time of 20:05.80.
 
"Emma out-touched her opponent by 0.15 seconds in the 500 yard freestyle, with a monster last 50 yards and those few points definitely helped narrow the point gap," noted Lin.
 
Robinson finished fourth in the 500 as the Warriors took second, third and fourth place. McAnear placed second in a time of 5:34.92 while Garrison's time for third was 5:40.43.
 
"Huge shout out to the 200 yard butterfly swimmers who went two, three and four, and to Ella Chaisson for her double victory in the 100 yard and 200 yard backstrokes," said Lin.
 
Emma Bustamante finished second in the 200 butterfly with a time of 2:24.16 while Hannah DeSoto claimed third with a time of 2:30.88. Allison McDougal grabbed a fourth place finish with a time of 2:35.26.
 
Chaisson's times in her backstroke events were 1:01.16 and 2:13.18. She won both races by more than two seconds.
 
The meet started off with the 200 yard medley relay that was won by the Westmont team of Chaisson, Abby Rickard, Emma Diehl and Bustamante. The quartet outpaced a team from the Master's by 0.95 seconds, posting a time of 1:56.35.
 
Midway through the meet, Westmont took time to honor Chaisson and DeSoto for their contributions to the Westmont swimming program. Chaisson will be graduating in May with a degree in kinesiology while DeSoto will finish up in December of 2024 with a double major in data analytics and in economics and business.
 
"Heading into next week, I'm hoping we can up our sprinting game and have a bigger impact with our relays," noted Lin. "Overall I'm really proud of the work they have put in as we start a new semester."
 
Next up, the Warriors are headed to Alaska for a meet with Alaska Fairbanks on January 12 and 13. Yes, it is an indoor meet.