By Ron Smith
February 14, 2026
 
(MONTEREY PARK, Calif.) "Wow what a day," said Westmont Swim's head coach Jill Lin about the final day of the Pacific Collegiate Swim and Dive Conference Championships. "It's really hard to put into words. I'm so proud. I'm proud of this team and the sisterhood they have created. I'm proud of their grit and determination to have a goal and work towards it with everything in their power. We accomplished so much today in and out of the pool.
 
"We knew we were ahead of The Master's and after I scored the remaining events I knew we had a good chance to keep the lead over them. I told the team that we had to win the meet in the morning, meaning we needed to get as many final swims as possible and give ourselves every chance to score points."
 
The Warriors entered the final day of competition with a 476-459.5 point lead for sixth place out of 12 teams.
 
The start of the morning session was the 100 yard freestyle preliminaries.
 
"Our 100 freestylers did great and Kate Spraul (52.82), Willow Pezone (53.23) and Daisy Marquardt (53.37) made it into the finals," reported Lin. "Daisy was the closest she has been to her lifetime best since she was 14 years old. Truly, such an accomplishment."
 
Spraul and Pezone earned berths in the 'B' final by finishing 13th and 16th respectively. Marquardt's 22nd-place finish resulted in a spot in the 'C' final.
 
Next up. Was the 200 yard backstroke.
 
"Our 200 backstrokers did amazing," emphasized Lin. "Katlyn McCurtain (2:06.27) barely snuck into the 'A' final, Megan Traina (2:09.08) in the 'B' final and Noelle Landon (2:11.27) and Madi Edwards (2:11.96) in the 'C' final.
 
Knowing they needed more swimmers in the evening finals, the Warriors turned to Abigail Rickard for the 200 yard breaststroke.
 
"It is a fast race and Abby was our lone shot at making finals," noted Lin. "With a monster prelims swim (2:28.64), she dropped two seconds off her best and made it back to the evening finals."
 
The morning session ended with the first several heats of the 1650 yard freestyle finals, which is known as the mile. The last heat of the event, consisting of the eight competitors with the fastest entry times, would be the first event of the evening session.
 
"Emma Robinson, Izzy Garcia and Grace McAnear swam in the morning," said Lin. "Izzy (18:43.51, 20th place) had a great swim and it was so helpful to have her score. Emma went a lifetime best (18:27.00, 17th place) and Grace (18:03.15) was within a few seconds of her best. Truly amazing swims by all of them. We wouldn't know final rankings until the evening finals, and Kimberly Green was in the final heat.
 
"Kimberly went after it! We knew she had a chance to score well and in the back of our mind we thought she could get the record previously held by Morgan Bienias."
 
Bienias' record of 17:37.77 was set in November of 2021 and was the longest held record of any event competed in the championship.
 
"When she reached the 500 yard mark and was about three seconds faster than Morgan's time, we knew it was over. She kept racing and had an incredible finish for fourth place (17:29.59), which was our highest individual finish of the meet.
 
"Miraculously, Grace's time in the morning heat got her into eighth place by 0.01. It is so amazing to have two people in the top eight in that event. That was a huge accomplishment. Then to have Kimberly break the record was insane. I'm so proud of her and the distance crew for really carrying each other to these best times."
 
Both Greene and McAnear received All-PCSC honors for their top-eight finishes.
 
The success of the 1650 yard freestyle was encouraging, but the Warriors had not yet accomplished their goal of beating The Master's.
 
The finals of the 100 yard freestyle saw Kate Spraul take 13th place in a time of 52.99. Willow Pezone moved up a spot, finishing 15th in a time of 53.09. Marquardt placed 22nd with time of 53.62.
 
Reporting on the 200 yard backstroke finals, Lin recalled, "Noelle (had a great evening swim and Madi out touched the two Master's swimmers we needed to beat in order to keep our lead."
 
McCurtain (2:07.03) moved up from eighth to seventh in the 200 yard backstroke 'A' final, claiming All-PCSC honors. Traina posted a 2:09.48 to claim 16th place. Landon (2:08.10) dropped her time more than three seconds from her performance in the prelims, holding on to 17th place. Edwards' time of 2:12.67 earned her 20th place.
 
Rickard was up next in the finals of the 200 yard breaststroke. "She went for it again and out touched another swimmer from The Master's," pointed out Lin.
 
Rickard dropped another 0.30 seconds, finishing 19th in a time of 2:28.34.
 
"Finally, we had our 400 yard freestyle relays," said Lin of the Championships' last race. "Our 'B' team was all seniors and our 'A' relay had two seniors. It is a very emotional feeling knowing you're about to swim your last race. They handled it so well and continued to swim for each other."
 
The 'A' team of Pezone, Spraul, Landon and McCurtain placed seventh with a time of 3:34.44. The 'B' team of Lauren Healy, Leighton Bell, Emma Bustamante and McKenzie Rion placed 15th, touching the wall in a time of 3:40.11.
 
"After the final race, we checked the score and we had achieved our goal to get sixth at conference," expressed Lin. "They had done it, and most importantly, they had done it together."
 
Westmont finished with 667 points, outpacing The Master's which tallied 632.5.
 
"This has been such a special year," said Lin. "Our seniors have set the standard for how this team should be and they have done it with so much grace. I honestly don't have words or clear thoughts to explain how special it is. They have created a sisterhood marked by love, joy, gratitude, and passion. It is a privilege to coach them and I'm so proud to be a Warrior with them."