Westside girls swim team wins Warrior Invitational

Every athlete dreams of defeating their rival at some point during their career. The Westside girls swimming team made their dream come true at the Warrior Invitational on Saturday, Jan. 28, when they beat Omaha Marian for the team title.

Westside took home gold at their own Invite with a score of 511 points. Following behind the Warriors was the Crusaders, who scored 335 points. Westside was led by many top swimmers including Kate Stevens, Piper Hagen, Natalie Harris, and Eliana Kratky. 

The foursome teamed up and swam the 400 freestyle relay, where they took first place over the Crusaders. The Warriors set a new meet record and school record with a time of 3:33.

“It was honestly really crazy, because I don’t think that we expected it. I think we were all just hoping to do our best,” Kratky said.  “And then when Piper touched and I was like, Oh my gosh, like I think we’re all just in shock for a long time.”

Hagen anchored the relay and came from behind to edge Marian at the wall to win the event by less than second.

“I felt really good. Katie Fully put up a great competition,” Hagen said. “It was I think like four tenths but Marian put up a great relay and so did we and in the end it just came down to the final touch and it was good.” 

Harris has worked hard in training and used a lot of the coaching strategies to help drive the Warriors to success. 

 “We continued working hard in training and the coaches had really good strategies for relays and events and stuff, and we really wanted to win,” Harris said. “So we picked up and we just worked hard and tried our best.”

Westside head coach Andy Rider was proud of his team’s accomplishments at the meet, after several swimmers qualified for state and recorded their best times of the season.

“The girls team rocked it, we had multiple season bests and many new state qualifiers,” Rider said. 

After beating Marian for the second time in a row, it marked a big  accomplishment for the Warriors. Coach Rider is very happy and excited to see how the rest of the season will go this month.

“They swam lights out and with good competition from Marian we really stepped up and battled and stayed on top,” Rider said. 

The state championship meet is getting closer, so Hagen has a few things she wants to work on before the team heads back to Lincoln. 

“Overall getting our team spirit up, having a good mental attitude about everything going on,” Hagen said. “Hopefully having our taper work in and resting will be good.”   

The Metro Championships are coming up on Friday, Feb. 10 and Saturday, Feb.11 at Millard West. Many swimmers will be looking at their last chance to get a state qualification time.