Westmont Swimmers earn All American honors

By RON SMITH WESTMONT SPORTS WRITER

Six Warrior swimmers, along with head coach Jill Jones Lin and newly appointed assistant coach Emma Leathers, made their way across the country to represent Westmont in the NAIA National Championships. By the end of the first day, all of them had earned NAIA All-American honors.

First, Morgan Bienias, Ella Chaisson, Bailey Lemmon and Daisy Marquardt finished eighth in the 200 yard medley relay. Then Olivia Garrison, Bienias, Emma Bustamante and Marquardt did the same in the 800 yard freestyle. The top eight finishers are named All-Americans.

The NAIA changed relay qualification procedures this year that made participation in the event a bit more challenging.

Last year, teams could qualify by beating relay qualification standards. This year, however, there were no qualification standards for relays. Instead, participants could only qualify for individual events. Then, each coach could put together relay teams from those who had qualified, assuming his or her school had enough qualifiers. The result was that a coach might have to include some swimmers who were not as proficient in the event.

Despite that reality, Westmont swimmer not only finished high enough to earn the All-American honors, but in the process broke the school record in both events.

“We did not know who to put on that relay,” acknowledge Westmont’s head coach Jill Jones Lin about the 200 yard individual medley. “We don’t have our typical relay swimmers to be able to pick from. So, we had to be a little more creative and think through all possible combinations. We hoped that it would be good and that Daisy could pull through. She hasn’t sprinted all season because she has focused more on the distance stroke events. It was awesome. Getting the first race out of the way is really important. We have been waiting and getting ready for the meet to start. It is

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