Westside faces top swimming teams in ‘Splash of the Titans’

The Westside swimming teams will compete in the “Splash of the Titans” meet at the University of Nebraska-Omaha pool on Friday, Jan. 20.

The triangular meet includes defending state champion Lincoln Southwest, Creighton Prep, Omaha Marian and Westside. Head coach Andy Rider is very excited for the meet and says there is a lot of fast competition for the Warriors. 

“The kids have kind of circled this one on their calendar that they know it’s going to be a big meet,” Rider said. “They know that there’s going to be fast competition, there should be a good crowd.” 

With a lot of competition to come the coaches have been hosting intense practices as well as making sure everyone is well rested and recovered.

“Practices our coaches started resting us in ways of shortening our yardage and how intense some of the practices have been leading up,” freshman swimmer Will Cartwright said. “Coaches have also been making sure that we are using our recovery time to the fullest.”

The Warriors will have a lot of fast competition and Cartwright is very excited to see how it will turn out.  

“Me being a freshman this is all new so I’m very excited to see how our competition against Prep will turn out to be,” Cartwright said. 

Rider said there are not many big meets with lots of competition in the season. He is very excited for this meet and how it will help their younger kids experience stiff competition in a big pool.  

 “It does wonders for these younger kids that big meet experience being able to swim against, you know, top caliber kids,” Rider said. “Knowing what’s out there and then you know, being able to say, ‘I gotta get better at this’ or I got to you know, I need to improve a little bit more on this. And just being able to compare themselves to the rest of the state.” 

Rider is excited to show off Westside’s younger swimmers against the best teams in the state.

“These kids will have a great opportunity against these other two programs,” Rider said.

Lincoln Southwest took the boys and girls state championships in 2022.  Creighton Prep and Omaha Marian finished as the runner-up at state. Westside faces a tough challenge in the meet.

“It’s definitely a first of its kind, and it’s in my eyes the best meet in Nebraska this year,” Rider said. 

The triangular meet at UNO will start with the diving competition at 5 p.m. The swimming events will begin at 5:45 p.m.