All six swimmers earn All American honors

WESTMONT

Continued from Page A3 finally here and this was a great way to set the tone.”

The race was particularly gratifying to Lemmon, a senior, who was unable to compete in her sophomore and junior seasons due to an injury.

“It is honestly exciting and I am proud of making it to this week, especially since it is our last year in the NAIA,” said Lemmon. “We had more people qualify this year than we thought. Being able to be an All-American alongside my teammates is an honor. I am proud of all of us for making it this far.

“The 50 yard butterfly (the third leg of the race) is my favorite relay to do. I was excited to swim with my goggles on (as compared to conference) and see how fast I could go. I think that was my fastest split for all four years.”

The Warrior quartet shaved exactly one-half second off the previous record, finishing in a time of 1:48.24.

In the 800 yard freestyle relay, the Warriors beat the previous record by more than four seconds, posting a time of 7:48.65.

”In general, they have all swam that event, but we have not focused on it in training,” noted Jones Lin. For them to come together and get a school record and get eighth place by 0.03 is pretty amazing. It was awesome for Morgan who just swam her last 200 freestyle ever. She was able to end on such a high note and was so close to her lifetime best time for her split.

“They all swam with a lot of heart. They went out really fast and held on as hard as they could in the end. It was a really good swim.”

For Bienias, a senior who participated in an off-campus program during the fall semester, the reality of getting back to the national championship site was especially challenging.

“I am really proud of myself and my team,” said Bienias. “I am really happy to be here. I wasn’t at Westmont in the fall, so it means a lot to be here now and I am super grateful.”

Asked about her fall training, Bienias replied, “I did a lot of running when I could in the mornings. I traveled a lot and wasn’t at school a whole lot. I didn’t do any weight training and maybe swam once a month. Getting back into training in January wasn’t as hard as I thought, but I definitely was not hitting my times at all. I was very out of shape and I still kind of am. But that is okay, I just tried to be positive and work hard in the weight room and in the pool.”

In regard to today’s 800 freestyle relay, the senior said, “Honestly, my body was not feeling great, but I wanted to be here with my team. We were all super positive and happy to be here. I think that is what brought the energy out of me. This was my last 200 freestyle ever and my last relay ever, so I just left it all out in the pool.”

In her freshman year, which was the first year of the program, Bienias earned AllAmerica honorable mention recognition in the 1650 yard freestyle. Since that time, she has been honored as an All-American each year. In total, she has now collected seven AllAmerican titles.

The other two members of the 800 yard freestyle relay team – Marqardt and Bustamante – are freshman and participating in the first national championships.

Asked if she thought she would be at nationals at the beginning of the year,

Marquardt answered, “Honestly, no. I wanted to make it, but looking at the times from last year, they were all very fast and I didn’t know that I could get there.

“At our winter invitational in November, I swam the 400 IM and Coach Jill said the timing could possibly get me into nationals. At the conference meet, she was more serious about me going and that is when I qualified for nationals.”

“I didn’t even think I was going to get to come to the meet,” said Bustamante, whose times put her just outside the initial list of qualifiers. When the final fields were set, however, Bustamante had made the cut. “Just being here is exciting. Then being able to place and be an All-American is very cool.”

Asked when she found out she would be able to compete, Bustamante said, “I was in the middle of biology class and all of my teammates told me to check my text messages.”

“It has been so fun being on such a close team and working hard together,” expressed Marquardt. “It is really special. I love all of our teammates. We push each other. I don’t think I could have gotten here without any of them and their pushing me in practice and at meets. They are so encouraging. I love our teams.

“They are so encouraging to me and everyone loves each other so much,” agreed Bustamante. “The fact that we are able to come to practice every day and work so hard is because we are doing it for each other, which is so special. We do it to do our best and to push each other to do our best – in and out of the pool.”

Ron Smith is the sports information director at Westmont College. email: sports@newspress.com consumer choice,” Mr. Dunmoyer said in the release. ”Natural gas appliances continue to be the top choice among home buyers, yet restrictions on natural gas access proposed by California municipalities are removing that choice. The science shows natural gas appliances pose no credible health risk with the required ventilation, and prohibiting these popular features in a home will only raise the cost of homeownership and put greater strain on an increasingly fragile electric grid.”

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