The Black and Orange meet for Westwood is a two-day affair that the swimmers partake in as a competition against each other, where teams are made and alliances are created. This meet is designed to create unity between new and returning swimmers, so that they can bond before their season starts. Being a team is important for swimmers because the races are individual, but in the end each athlete needs to do their best so that their overall score beats out the other teams’.

The day before the big race, each swimmer comes to school decked out in their given color, and paint is smeared across each individual. This is a symbol of war and competition between the opposing sides of one team. Getting prepped the day before at school allows the swimmers to get into the right mindset. They may be competing against friends, but this is still a serious meet to prepare times and race strategy for the upcoming season. This meet is extremely important for the new swimmers on the team because it’s their first meet as a Westwood Warrior, and they get to experience a high school swim meet before the competitive season really starts.

“It was a real indicator for who trained over the summer and who didn’t,” Garrett Mott ’16 said.

The meet started at 7 a.m. and lasted until 8:30. It was a short meet in swimming standards, but the competition was every apparent. Each swimmer was prepared to showcase their times for Coach McBrearty. They used this meet to prove that they had improved on times and were ready for the upcoming season.

“For me, it shows which athletes are committed to the program and which ones aren’t,”Coach McBrearty said. “Also to any upperclassmen, here’s a warning: watch out for the new freshman because half of the top four in every event were underclassmen.”

The final score of the Orange and Black meet was 179-155, with the Orange team beating Black for the first time in four years.