Grace Johnson is a student at Arizona State's Cronkite Schools of Journalism assigned to cover Westview High School.

SURPRISE, Ariz. -- The Westview Knights battled against Canyon View and Shadow Ridge at Surprise Aquatic Center in an exhibition swimming meet on Thursday despite being down in numbers.

Heading into the third meet of the Knights’ season, head coach Cristine Petruncola approached the meet as a learning experience for her maturing team even if they didn’t have the numbers like their competitors.

Westview had a total of nine swimmers competing in 12 events of the tri-meet, and only two of those swimmers have more than two years of swimming experience.

“We have such a small team, so I just want the kids to do the best that they can today,” Petruncola said before the meet.

Not only was Petruncola down in numbers, but she was also down captain senior Leah Gonzalez, who injured her rotator cuff earlier in the week and was out Thursday. Gonzalez said she would be cheering her team on from the sidelines of the pool, especially during its medleys.

“I just wanted my team to have fun with it today,” the captain said. “Our medleys were what were extremely important for us to be successful today.”

Though Wsteview was not awarded any points because it was an exhibition meet, Petruncola was proud of her team and said that there were always going to be takeaways.

“Going into our next meet, we are going to have to work harder on our times and then hopefully, we will have more kids eligible to swim,” Petruncola said. “I just kept cheering them on and telling them how proud I was of them and I think they had fun today.

"Most of my team is two years younger than [the experienced swimmers]. So I have a developing team.”

Senior Brett Kallmes, who competed in the 200-meter medley relay and the 500-meter freestyle race, said he saw improvement from his team throughout the meet. He complimented his team’s resilience.

“Personally, I am sick right now so I am definitely not at my peak, but I feel like we all did well and I did well for how I am feeling,” Kallmes said. “Looking forward, I really just want to work on my pacing and my breathing.”

Canyon View and Shadow Ridge put pressure on Westview throughout the meet and outswam the Knights with speed and numbers. But Kallmes and his team stuck to its main motto: to keep pushing until the end no matter where they placed.

Kallmes finished in 39.07 seconds for the 200-meter medley relay and clocked in at 7:55.04 for the 500-meter freestyle. 

“I am not going to lie, I was really struggling during the 500 freestyle,” Kallmes said. “But I knew that I got myself into this and I knew I could not just pull myself out. I had to keep moving forward. And like that quote from ‘Meet The Robinsons’ I just ‘kept moving forward and that is what kept me motivated.”

The Knights next take on Cortez and Raymond S. Kellis in their meet on Oct. 5 at 4 p.m.