Before the fall semester and calendar year conclude, Sagehens playing winter sports at Pomona College begin their time in the spotlight.
As the respective homes of men’s and women’s basketball and men’s and women’s swimming and diving, the Center for Athletics, Recreation and Wellness (CARW) and Haldeman Pool buzz with activity during an otherwise slow time on campus.
Three Sagehens currently in season reflect on their time in blue and orange.
Asha Bansal ’26, women’s swimming
Asha Bansal ’26 learned how to swim before she learned how to walk.
The Scottsdale, Arizona, native was six months old when her mother put her in swim lessons, and by 5, she was in a local swim club bouncing from school to practice on weekdays with meets on weekends.
Years of being measured against the clock taught Bansal to burnish one skill every practice.
“When I was younger,” she says, “I would try to work on my turns, my starts, my tempo all at one time, and it wasn’t productive. Once I started focusing on one specific skill I noticed gradual improvements.”
Bansal entertained the prospect of swimming for smaller Division I colleges but decided Division III Pomona was where she could excel athletically and academically.
She competed in 10 meets her first year, then qualified for and swam the 200 fly, 100 fly and 200 IM at the NCAA Division III Championships as a sophomore.
“Being a part of the NCAAs was something I never thought would happen,” she says. “I’m really glad I had that experience.”
Bansal dealt with a bit of swim fatigue and homesickness last season and narrowly missed the cut for the NCAA Championships. A senior and team captain this year, she’s determined to keep the Sagehens’ women’s program rolling.
“Everyone wants everyone else to succeed,” she says. “When you see your teammates working hard and wanting to achieve high goals in and out of the pool, it really drives you to want to do the same.”
Bansal, a molecular biology major on the premed track, was a member of the 2024-25 Scholar All-American Team, as named by the College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA).
Rigorous as Pomona’s been academically, Bansal appreciates how “being a small fish in a big pond” has challenged her to embrace discomfort.
In her spare time, she’s part of an athletes Bible study with Claremont Christian Fellowship, works as a student mentor for the Chemistry Department and tutors high schoolers in math.
After graduation, she’ll spend two years in Boston teaching high school with Teach for America. When her gap years conclude, she’ll apply to medical school to become a dermatologist or anesthesiologist.
“I’ve realized I really like helping people,” she says.
Adrian Clement ’26, men’s swimming
Any number of techniques separate competing swimmers in races decided by tenths of a second, but it’s a rather unconventional one Adrian Clement ’26 uses to shave precious milliseconds off his times.
“We train so we don’t breathe the last 15 yards” of a race, the Portland, Oregon, native says. “Any breath in the last 15 yards isn’t benefitting you in the moment, just in how you feel after the race. And how you feel after the race doesn’t have any impact on how you perform.”
As a sprinter on the Sagehens men’s swim team, Clement trains his breathing as ardently as he does his fly and freestyle strokes. His individual events don’t last long but every individual race and relay contributes to the team’s overall score and status.
After suffering a concussion early in his first year, Clement concluded that 2022-23 season a two-time All-American as part of the Sagehens’ 400 and 800 freestyle relay teams. As a sophomore, he helped the 800 freestyle relay team set new school and conference records in a third-place finish at the NCAA Championships.
“Having everyone who’s not on the relay get behind your block and cheer you on is one of the most adrenaline inducing and thrilling emotions I’ve felt in or out of a sport,” he says. “Being a part of relays at Pomona has made me realize how important team camaraderie is here.”
Clement, a computer science major who’s received a job offer to work as a software engineer in New York, studied abroad most of his junior season, but returned in time for the postseason push.
He and his 400 freestyle relay teammates came two one-hundredths of a second short of qualifying for the NCAA Championships last winter, a result Clement says is fueling his competitive spirit in his Sagehens swan song.
“It comes down to working on the little things in practice,” he says. “If I look back 10 years and saw where I’m at today and how fast I’m swimming, I don’t think I’d believe myself, and that in itself has been a really big accomplishment.”
In this final year at Pomona, Clement is determined to lead the Sagehens to their first Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) championship since 2019 and end the 2025-26 campaign in Indianapolis, at the NCAA Championships.
“Winning SCIACs would be amazing,” he says, “but we can’t get ahead of ourselves. We’ve got to put our heads down, put in the work and see where it leads us.”
Abby Homan ’27, women’s basketball
Abby Homan ’27 was homesick, a Midwesterner two time zones west of her native Naperville, Illinois, trying to acclimate to a warmer climate.
She chose to attend Pomona because she clicked with Coach Alaina Woo ’17, and the liberal arts education promised her a leg up on other college graduates. A 6-foot forward who played alongside Division I-bound dynamos in high school, Homan fit right in on the court and in the classroom.
But those spaces were familiar, she says. Adjusting to the unfamiliar was the challenge.
“I leaned heavily on basketball that first year because that felt like home,” she says. “I met with my teammates a lot and, ultimately, they became my second family.”
In addition to helpful conversations with Woo that first semester, Homan often slept in her teammates’ dorms to combat her homesickness. She moved in with teammate Jadyn Lee ’27 after winter break and grew increasingly comfortable in her surroundings.
Homan was one of four first-years on an exceedingly young Sagehens team that used the 2023-24 season to gel as a unit. They bounced back last year with 14 wins and a conference tournament appearance.
“We made some great strides” last season, says Homan, who averaged double digit points her first two years in blue and orange. “It was awesome to see the improvements we made in just one year.”
Through the first week of January, Homan leads the Sagehens in scoring and rebounding—a true breakout campaign, Woo says.
Basketball has given Homan a lot, so while at Pomona, she’s returning the favor.
The women’s team runs a clinic for young girls every Thursday to raise funds for a planned trip to Spain. The Sagehens also coach a Special Olympics basketball team in the spring.
An economics major, Homan hopes to soon cut her teeth in consulting or investment banking, spaces she can apply the transferable skills she flexes as a Sagehen student-athlete.
“Pomona’s provided me a place to grow,” she says. “I came in and struggled, but now I can call this place my second home. It’s a place I can ask questions, I can get closer with professors, develop mentors, push myself academically and push myself on the basketball court.”