By Ron Smith
February 14, 2024
 
(MONTEREY PARK, Calif.) Westmont Women's Swimming is bringing the 2023-24 season to a close by competing in the Pacific Collegiate Swim Conference Championships held at East Los Angeles College. On the first day of the four-day event, Westmont swimmers produced some personal best times and two school records.
 
"Overall, it was a fun first day," said Westmont's head coach Jill Lin. "The distance group set the tone for getting everyone excited. It was really fun to set two program records in one day.
 
"We started out with the 1000 yard freestyle with the non-final heats swam earlier today. Tiffany Bell started us out with a lifetime best time and a 40 second drop, going 12:16.71, which was awesome. Allison McDougal had an amazing race. She was close with her heat, then came back really fast and ended her last 100 with a 1:02, which is impressive. She was able to out touch some people in the process. It was her season best time (11:05.64) and close to her lifetime best time.
 
"Emma Robinson also had a lifetime best time after doing the same at the UCSB meet at the split of her 1000 in the 1650 yard freestyle. At the split of the 1000, she went 11:22, then today she went 11:09.86.
 
"Grace McAnear and Olivia Garrison went out tonight in the final heat. They were able to stay together and race hard. Grace had a lifetime best of 10:54.19 and Olivia had a school record time of 10:53.27 in the event.
 
Garrison finished 21st while McAnear placed 22nd.
 
"In the 200 medley relay, we were able to field three teams," noted Lin. "Our 'A' Team was just off our school record with some great splits. Abby (Abigail Rickard) went 31.2. Ella Chaisson led off the relay with a 26.7, which was a good time."
 
The Warriors finished ninth with a time of 1:49.43.
 
"The big highlight was the 800 freestyle relay," expressed Lin. "We knew that was going to be our highest scoring relay. Our team of Olivia, Ella, Katlyn McCurtain and Daisy Marquardt came away with a fifth place finish and broke the school record by four seconds. They all went around 1:55 to 1:56 to be able to finish in 7:44.64. It was awesome to see them come together and be able to finish in that time."
 
The Warriors will be back in action tomorrow for the second day of championship competition.