WHITTIER, Calif. (Jan. 7, 2023) – The Whittier College women's swimming & diving team returned to action for its 2024 stretch run over the weekend, competing against Pomona-Pitzer Colleges on the road before returning home the following day to defeat Albion College on Sunday.
Both meets were unique for their own reasons. The meet at Pomona-Pitzer utilized a long course format, while the Albion meet featured bite-sized sprint versions of the standard run of events.
Saturday
While the Poets ultimately came up short against one of the the nation's top programs, as well as the SCIAC's, the team did get a slew of great individual performances that reflect positively on the team's talent and youth. Freshman
Mia Piexoto (Salem, Ore. / West Salem) led the Poets in multiple events, namely the 200 Long Course Breast, where she defeated five other competitors, including teammates
Gessica King (Honolulu, Hawaii / Kalani) and
Tara Hendrickson (Fargo, N.D. / Davies) with a winning time of 2:52.22. Piexoto also went head-to-head with two of the home team's top breaststrokers in the 100 Long Course competition, finishing roughly two seconds behind the event winner (1:20.82). As a relay contributor, Piexoto helped the Poets to a win in the 400 Long Course Freestyle Relay, combining with teammate
Anna Dyckerhoff (Palo Alto, Calif. / Woodside Priority), along with King and senior
Grace Cooper (Anthem, Ariz. / Boulder Creek) for a time of 4:36.82.
Whittier's two divers on the women's side,
Miriam Brownell (Marshall, Mich. / Marshall) and
Juli Veneri showed well on the board, competing in both the 1-meter and 3-meter competitions. Brownell took second out of the four-woman field in each event, posting a 167 in on the 1-meter board, and a 161.85 on the 3-meter board.
Sunday
The women got a huge winning moment in the form of a victory over Albion College on Sunday. The meet was held at the Slade Aquatics Center, and saw the Poets defeat the Britons, 171-109 behind several strong performances.
First, Brownell and Veneri showed improvement on their Saturday, with Brownell scoring a 191.90 on the 1-meter board and a 185.75 on the 3-meter board, while Veneri posted a 158.15 and a 160.30 respectively. From there, the Poets took over in the pool with Piexoto leading her team to victory in the 200 Medley Relay and 200 Free Relay after winning both of her individual events (200 IM, 100 Back). The freshman won her individual events with minimal difficulty, and lifted the relay teams to times on par with their season-bests at this point in the campaign. She combined with classmate Hendrickson, King, and Dyckerhoff in the 200 Medley Relay, and teamed with Cooper, Dyckerhoff, and freshman
Isabella Cabral (Albuquerque, N.M. / Cottonwood Classical Preparatory School) in the freestyle relay event.
King also gave the Poets substantial contributions in the pool as the only swimmer in the 100 Breast event, as well as an event-winner in the 50 Breast, beating out teammate Hendrickson. She also joined Piexoto in the 200 IM. Hendrickson, meanwhile, showed well in the 50 Fly and 50 Back, winning with times of 28.88 and 30.88 in both events. She had to hold off classmate
Ella Calder (York, Pa. / Spring Grove Park Area) in the former event, who touched the wall less than half a second after her. Meanwhile, sophomore
Riana Barrett (Las Vegas, Nev. / Faith Lutheran) held her own in distance and mid-distance events, winning the 1000 Free in 11:18.17 and the 500 Free in 5:36.38.
Head Coach
Michael Jafari and the Poets will look to continue to round into SCIAC Championship form when they travel to Caltech on Saturday, Jan. 13 for a dual meet against the Beavers. The meet is scheduled to get underway at 10:30 a.m.
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