California Baptist University

M ia Maspers, freshman architecture major, fixes her CBU swim cap just to see the same cap rep licated up and down the 10-lane pool. Instead of an opposing team’s name, she sees her own school. Maspers is on the block to race against her own team mates. This is not the only thing she will have to adapt to this year. For the women’s swim team, the COVID-19 pan demic meant not being able to physically swim against a swimmer from another team for the majority of the season. Sports teams were not allowed to travel and there were restrictions put in place regarding how many people can be gathered. To combat these challenges, the CBU swim team engaged in virtual swim meets. This means each team holds a swim meet from their home pool but only their own swimmers compete. Then, instead of automatically seeing who wins their races, they have to upload their times online and wait for another team to do the same. Masper’s explains how difficult it was to adapt to the setup. “When I came to CBU, my first meet was virtual, so I had never experienced a meet with another team,” she says. “Doing the meet virtually was a blessing in that we could actually race. But I think the team found it hard in that the atmosphere wasn’t the same and be ing a team was more challenging. Also, nothing beats a travel meet.” By the end of 2020, the CBU swim team was able to attend swim meets at other pools and even host some at its home pool. The team had to adapt to strict regula tions and a nonstop race schedule. “Our coach always reminds us that this year, in par ticular, we have to be flexible,” swimmer Jenna Wash burn, senior film major says. “And although this year has had some challenges and some tough news to bear, my teammates and I roll with the punches and adapt to the circumstances.” The swim team at CBU had many challenges to Swim Team Adjusts to New Ways of Competing

WORDS Faith Brazil overcome, similar to every athlete on campus, but they accepted the changes with grace and rolled with the punches to make a great season out of something dif ficult. Swim for the Win 113 Swim PHOTO Elijah Hickman DESIGN Hannah Lapos