By Ron Smith
December 8, 2025
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) Westmont Swim hosted Azusa Pacific and Concordia on Saturday at the Tom and Meg Names Aquatics Center in the only home meet of the year. The Warriors also celebrated Senior Day.
 
"We had a very emotional meet for a lot of reasons," said Westmont's head coach Jill Lin. "First, we were honored to host the Concordia women in their first meet back after their program was suddenly cut last spring. They fought hard to bring the team back and it was a really special moment to see them come out and race very well despite all odds.
 
"Second, we got to honor our nine incredible seniors who have made a tremendous impact on our team. It's always emotional to think about our team without our seniors on it, but thankfully their legacy and impact doesn't end at graduation. They have brought their teammates up and shown them what it means to be part of this team. We are so grateful for their commitment and leadership."
 
The nine seniors honored were: Leighton Bell, Brogan Braaten, Emma Bustamante, Lauren Healy, Daisy Marquardt, Katlyn McCurtain, Abby Rickard, McKenzie Rion and Emma Robinson.
 
The meet was conducted in a double-dual format, meaning that the scoring was done as if each team were in dual meets against the other two. In that format, Westmont posted a 197-36 win over a reconstituted Concordia team and Azusa Pacific edged Westmont 135-108.
 
"We had some great races," noted Lin. "We had been focusing on details and sprint training this week to ease back into training following the Thanksgiving break. The team seemed to respond well to these shorter races. Abby Rickard barely won the 100 yard breaststroke."
 
Rickard touched the wall in a time of 1:11.18, beating Gillian Sato of Azusa Pacific by 0.24 seconds.
 
"Kate Spraul had a great 200 yard freestyle to pull out a first place finish with Willow Pezone coming in third," pointed out Lin.
 
Spraul posted a time of 1:58.15 to finish ahead of the Cougars' Kya Guikema by 0.53 seconds. Pezone's time was 1:59.96.
 
Landon Noelle claimed two first-place finishes. In the 50 yard backstroke, she recorded a time of 27.76, nearly three-quarters of a second faster than Sato. Then in the 50 yard freestyle, she swam 25.40 to edge out Hannah Edwards of Concordia by just 0.05 seconds.
 
"Emma Bustamante had great butterfly races," expressed Lin.
 
Bustamante finished second in both butterfly events, recording a time of 27.25 in the 50 yard race and 1:00.98 in the 100 yard.
 
The Warriors' next meet will take place in the new year. On January 2, Westmont will head to Thousand Oaks to take part in the Chris Knorr Invitational at California Lutheran. It will be the first time Westmont has competed in that event since the program's inaugural season in 2019-20.