The women’s team swam out with a win against all four opponents, while the men lost against their only opponent Bakersfield.
Brahmas had a solid overall performance at the first Western State Conference Invite held at home on Friday, March 4th. Pierce competed against Valley, Citrus, Bakersfield, and Allan Hancock.
For the 1,000-meter freestyle swim the Pierce women ended in second place behind Valley College. Freshman Kailey Bennett placed second followed by Shany Ninio in third. Ninio also competed in the 200-meter freestyle, where she placed second, followed by Melissa Velasco.
Pierce swimmer, Eryn Krouse coasted to first place in the women’s 200-meter individual medley. Krouse competed alongside with Jennifer Weiss, who was disqualified in her first event for doing a flip turn instead of touching the wall.
“Well I don’t want to do that again, I just need to prepare ahead of time,” Weiss said. “I wasn’t ready I didn’t realize I was next so I wasn’t mentally prepared.”
She would later place second in the women’s 100-meter breaststroke.
“I feel good about that. It was one of my best races,” she said.
In the women’s first heat of the 100-meter butterfly, swimmer Gerryleo Sarmiento had to exit the race due to exhaustion.
“I believe I was under the water for too long when I dove off so that kinda caused me a whole lot of my energy. I also didn’t warm up before I went in so I think that’s what cost me the race,” Sarmiento said.
This was the first time Sarmiento had to exit a match.
Women’s swim and dive head coach Judi Terhar was very proud of her team’s performance.
“They did absolutely fantastic. They came together as a team, and we really didn’t anticipate that they would win against all of the teams,” Terhar said. “One of the reasons that we won against Allan Hancock is because of our diver, who got two first places and pushed us over the top to get us the win.”
Whether the team wins or not, Terhar’s goal is for the swimmers to improve.
“I wasn’t disappointed in any race. It took every single person for us to win this. Usually our goal isn’t to win, our goal is basically for them to improve,” Terhar said.
The second Western State Conference meet will be on Saturday, March 19 at Santa Barbara City College.
