By RYAN GEORGE
The Westmont girls swimming team continued their unbeaten season Monday with a 90-80 win over Hollidaysburg on Senior Night at the Sports Center at Pitt-Johnstown.
The Hilltoppers (12-0) handed the Golden Tigers (10-1) their first loss of the season in a tight match that came down to the final event of the night, the
400 freestyle. With the victory, Westmont can clinch the conference with a win Feb. 17 at Somerset.
“This speaks tremendously of my girls. They took it into the pool and showed them what we could do,’’ said Westmont coach Jay Hicks.
“Last year was the first time we beat them (Hollidaysburg) in two years and we knew from the beginning of the season they were pulling to beat us.”
With only a six-point lead going into the freestyle relay, Westmont’s Naofa Noll, Nikki Miller, Nikki Kovach and Julia Wolfe turned in a time of 3:56:17 to win the race and hold on to take the event.
“Going into the final race it could have gone either way,’’ Hicks said. “Our senior girls have been our driving force all year long. They pushed themselves and our team. They made a difference on the underclassmen and the underclassman looked up to them.”
For senior captain Maggie Atterbury the match proved the Westmont girls’ team’s individual effort and team-minded approach.
“We were focused as individuals. We didn’t think about how we were compared or matched up to them, or how their skills were. Libby Atterbury had a strong effort in our backstroke competition but our freestylers were very strong in the final relay of the night.”
Westmont knew the visiting Hollidaysburg team would give a valiant effort, but as Atterbury and her coach believed, the freestyle swimmers were very strong.
“We’ve always had strong freestyle swimmers. We’re sprinters,’’ Hicks added.
Atterbury noted the level of competition she expected following the match.
“We went into this obviously hoping for a win coming off a lot of blowout wins, but knew this would be a tough one. We pulled together as a team and remained undefeated.”
The Westmont boys fell at the hands of Hollidaysburg 111-58, dropping to
9-3 on the season, while the Golden Tigers go to 11-0.
Ryan Koul and Ray Ward led the way for Westmont in the match, each winning two events.
Koul took the 50 freestyle and 100 backstroke, while Ward won the 200 freestyle and the 100 freestyle race.
The Hilltopper boys came into the match with far fewer competitors than the visiting squad, a factor Hicks believes played a major role in the outcome.
“We’ve been battling the numbers all year. We have the talent but not enough of the talent. We were outmanned tonight.”
Meanwhile, Hicks believes his smaller team managed to compete very well in the match.
“We had a lot of second and third places in the scoring and our seniors as always stepped up with leadership.
Westmont took the 400 freestyle relay with Koul, Ward, Bobby Nickels, and Corey Schafer scoring a 3:40:44.
