Westside Swimming Invitational preview

Some of the best high school swimmers in Nebraska will compete in the annual Warrior Invitational, which will take place on Saturday, Jan 28. Westside will host Bellevue West, Elkhorn, Grand Island, Hastings, Kearney, Lincoln Pius X, Omaha Marian, Omaha Central, Ralston and Scottsbluff.

One of the swimmers to watch is Westside’s Piper Hagen. The sophomore was the runner-up in the 50 and 100 yard freestyle events at the Burke Invitational on Dec. 9. Hagen is excited to compete against many talented swimmers as well as getting better times. 

“Overall, getting the best times we can and just seeing what we can put out as a team,” Hagen said. 

Hagen is currently ranked tenth in the state in the 100 freestyle with a time of 54.23. She hopes the Warriors will win the Invite and wants everyone to try as hard as possible in the meet. 

“Doing our best to obviously win as much as we can but also just put in our best times and see what we can do,” Hagen said.

For a historic swim meet there are a lot of traditions, including the “Speedo Run”, which consists of a run around the school in the swimmers’ speedos. 

“The Speedo Run is always a good one to watch and see,” Hagen said. 

Many eyes will be on Westside’s state champion Nate Germonprez, who will compete in the 50 freestyle and the 100 backstroke. Those are the only events, where the senior does not hold the Westside pool record.

The winter swim season is coming to a close and this is one of the last meets of the season before the state championships. Hagen is very excited to see how her teammates will do in the meet.

“It is exciting to see how other people do and we’ve been training for so long that I think it’ll turn out good,” Hagen said. 

The Warrior Invitational will start at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, Jan.28. The meet will be live-streamed on Westside Wired or on WTV Live on YouTube.