The swim team held their annual Distance Challenge on Friday, Oct. 13. Like past years, every swimmer is allowed to wear a costume and swim half a mile or wear no costume and swim a mile. Along with the Distance Challenge, there is also a fundraiser, where the swimmers will ask their families and neighbors to donate money to the swim team. The money will go to the booster club, and will pay for the away meets.

“I dressed up as Wonder Woman and it actually wasn’t all that hard to swim in it,” Molly Sparrow ‘21 said. “The costume was made up of leggings and leg warmers, and as I swam my legs got reasonably tired by my arms were fine, allowing me to swim the 875 pretty quickly.”

Coaches Matt McBrearty and Tamra Franklin were the judges of who wore the best costume. Deciding they had different opinions, four winners were chosen: Alex Hao ‘18 and Nathan Early ‘20, who dressed up as hula dancers, Ashlyn Carroll ‘18, who dressed up as a deck official, and Sofia Martinez ‘18, who dressed up as a basketball player. After the swimmers finished their laps, breakfast was waiting for them as a reward for earning all the money for the booster club. As of Oct. 12, the swim team made $6836 with the sophomore class in the lead, earning the most.

“I earned the money by asking family and they all donated the most,” Victoria Novoa ‘21 said. “The mile wasn’t as bad, I tried at the beginning but then I saw everyone having fun so I just relaxed and had fun.

Coach Franklin added a new part of the fundraiser this year; selling t-shirts that say “I love my Westwood Swimmer” for $20 and adding names to the back of the t-shirt for an extra $2. This idea came from originally giving the t-shirts out as an invite to the Orange and Black meet, and unexpectedly earning many pleasant responses with requests for more. Many swimmers were able to sell out many of the t-shirts not only to family, but also friends.

“I sold my T-shirts to my parents, my sister, and my grandparents,” Grace Castelino ‘20 said. “They got ‘Castelino’ on the back. From the T-shirts I made $100 and we sell these T-shirts to pay for our travel meets, the buses and food for the meets.”

The swim team will be participating in the AISD Invitational meet at UT on Friday, Oct 20.