LOS ANGELES (Feb. 25, 2024) – The Whittier College swimming & diving team had a late rally to finish seventh at this year's SCIAC Championship Swimming & Diving Meet, beating out the University of Redlands and the University of La Verne for eighth and ninth place respectively. The meet took place over four days at East Los Angeles College (ELAC).
Day 1
The first day of the meet, Thursday, saw the Whittier women compete in the 800 Free Relay as well as the 200 Medley Relay in addition to the 1-meter diving competition. Senior
Juli Veneri capped off her lone season on the boards by finishing ahead of three SCIAC divers, all freshmen, who did not register scores due to disqualification.
As for Whittier's relay efforts, the Poets took eighth place in both events out of 17 competing combinations from nine SCIAC institutions. The Poets 'A' team in the 200 Medley Relay, which consisted of freshmen
Tara Hendrickson and
Mia Piexoto, along with junior
Gessica King and senior
Grace Cooper (Anthem, Ariz. / Boulder Creek), finished in 1:52.49. Meanwhile, the 800 Free Relay team of Piexoto, along with sophomore
Riana Barrett (Las Vegas, Nev. / Faith Lutheran), junior
Anna Dyckerhoff (Palo Alto, Calif. / Woodside Priority Full Bio), and freshman
Isabella Cabral (Albuquerque, N.M. / Cottonwood Classical Preparatory School) also took eighth with a time of 8:07.01 that stuck them firmly between Redlands and La Verne. However, the Poets would continue to mount momentum throughout the weekend with Head Coach
Michael Jafari challenged to construct the best possible lineup for team success in the days to come.
Day 2
Friday's action saw the Poets swim in the 500 Free, 50 Free, and 200 IM, with several athletes showing they could accrue key points in various 'B' finals throughout the day. Two such athletes were Barrett and Dyckerhoff and in the 500 Free. Barrett outperformed her teammate by less than a second in the morning session, but the night session saw Dyckerhoff not only best her sophomore teammate but overcome a lower-body injury as well as other nagging injuries accrued throughout the season to lower her time by two seconds (5:15.83).
Though the Poets still trailed the Bulldogs at this point in the competition, they would manage to chip away at Redlands on later streets, a recurring theme for the Purple & Gold throughout the weekend.
Day 3
The action continued on Saturday, with the Poets slated to compete in five events: the 400 IM, 100 Fly, 200 Free, 100 Breast, and 100 Back, as well as the 200 Freestyle Relay. Whittier beat out La Verne in the latter event, with a combination consisting of Cooper, Dyckerhoff, Hendrickson, and junior
Piper Guinn (Dripping Springs, Texas / Dripping Springs) earning the Poets some crucial points. However, freshman
Mia Piexoto would separate herself as the true standout on Saturday, taking sixth-place in the 'A' final of the 400 IM, at that point the highest place of finish for any Poet on the men's or women's team this year. The freshman first swam to a season-best 4:35.41 in the morning which positioned her fifth among her peers, and she would post a 4:37-flat in the finals to complete an excellent sequence for the Purple & Gold. Her preliminary time came just two seconds off the program record, though she would not be the only Poet to score in the 400 IM. Cabral, along with sophomore
Ella Calder made the 'B' final, with Calder shaving three seconds off her preliminary time to earn four points, plus Cabral's two, in an event where neither the Bulldogs nor Leopards scored.
Dyckerhoff, meanwhile, would continue to show she can be a force for the Poets in the 200 Free. She qualified for the 'B' final with a 1:59.61 time in the morning before posting a near-identical time later that evening to once again earn Whittier points in an event that neither Redlands, nor La Verne scored in. Whittier's prevalence in 'B' finals continued in the 100 Breast, where both King and Hendrickson earned points. Of the two, King finished slightly higher, with a 1:07.58 in the morning setting up an evening time that earned her 11th place overall. The tenacious effort from the Poets put them firmly within striking distance of then-seventh place Redlands heading into the final day of competition.
Day 4
The final day of action would see the Poets swim the 400 Medley Relay, 1650 Free, 200 Fly, 100 Free, 200 Breast and 200 Back. The team of Hendrickson, Cooper, Piexoto and King would again earn the Poets an eighth-place relay finish, though the best came for the Poets earlier in the day. Whittier distance specialists, Dyckerhoff and Barrett, would swim the mammoth 1650 Free, posting 11th and 12th place finishes. A 16th-place finish for Cabral would net the Poets 12 points in all compared to Redlands' seven and La Verne's zero. Meanwhile, Piexoto helped the cause in the 200 Back, making the 'B' final with a 2:15.09 in the morning before moving her time down to 2:11.78 in the evening to earn Whittier six more points in another event where the Bulldogs failed to score.
Piexoto's best finish of the day came in the 200 Breast, however, where she earned her second 'A' final appearance of the weekend and established herself as one of the SCIAC's most consistent young talents on the women's side. She entered the mix with a 2:26.09 in the morning, but bumped her time up to 2:25.15 in the finals, as well as improving on her SCIAC standing to give the Poets 14 key points. She stood out as the only freshman in the 'A' final of the event, but not the only Poet. King joined her in the 'A' race, marking the only time of the weekend Whittier received representation from multiple athletes in an 'A' final. King posted a seventh-place 2:28.02 in line with her preliminary time, and once again bagged the Poets some key points as the comeback on Redlands became closer and closer to reality.
Entering the final event of the weekend, the 400 Free Relay, Whittier held a seven-point lead on Redlands having already guaranteed itself an eighth-place finish or better on the women's side. To retain seventh-place, the Poets needed a strong swim in the 'A' race to keep the Bulldogs at bay while hoping for a less-than-stellar swim from the Bulldogs' 'B' team since the Poets could only field one combination. In the end, Jafari's lineup worked to perfection, as the Poets swam to a seventh-place finish behind the team of Piexoto, Dyckerhoff, Guinn and Cooper. Redlands took sixth in the same race, but with that resulting in only a two-point differential, the Bulldogs actually needed to finish three places higher than the Poets to claim seventh of their 'B' team picked up two points in the prior race. In turn, Whittier held off Redlands in the closest place-of-finish margin between any two schools on the men's and women's side at this year's championship meet.
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