FEDERAL WAY, Wash. – The 19th-ranked Bruins head to the Pacific Northwest this week for the 2016 Pac-12 Conference Women's Swimming and Diving Championships, which take place Wednesday through Saturday at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center.
Once again, the Pac-12 is stacked with five of its nine teams ranked in the top 25. Stanford leads the way at No. 1, USC is fourth, Cal is sixth, Arizona is 14th, and UCLA rounds it out at No. 19.
The Championships begin on Wednesday at 1 p.m. with the women's 1-Meter diving event. Between the lane lines, action begins at 6 p.m. with a pair of relays—the 200 Medley and 800 Freestyle. On Thursday, preliminaries start at 11 a.m. with the 500 Free, 200 Individual Medley, 50 Free, and 3-Meter Diving. Thursday's finals follow at 6 p.m., which will also feature the 200 Free Relay.
Competition continues on Friday at 11 a.m. with the prelims for the 400 IM, 100 Butterfly, 200 Free, 100 Breaststroke, and 100 Backstroke. The finals take place at 6 p.m., wrapping up with the 400 Medley Relay.
The Championships conclude on Saturday. Action begins at 11 a.m. with the prelims of the 200 Back, 100 Free, 200 Breast, 200 Fly, and platform diving. All heats of the 1650 Free, with the exception of the A heat, will get underway at 4 p.m. The A heat and the rest of the finals will begin at 6 p.m. The platform final and the 400 Free Relay close out the week's festivities.
The Bruins wrapped up the regular season with a 6-4 record in dual meets and a 3-4 mark in Pac-12 meets. Among Pac-12 foes, UCLA defeated Oregon State (175-82), Arizona State (180-116), and Utah (182-95). The Bruins did not face Washington State and lost to Arizona (160-140), Stanford (182-118), California (185-114), and USC (181-119).
UCLA won the A3 Performance Invitational back in November, besting the field by 380.5 points and winning 12 of 18 events. Freshman standout Emma Schanz and junior Linnea Mack posted two wins apiece on the weekend. Schanz won the 200 Breast with a season-best 2:12.55, while Mack took the 50 Free and the 100 Back.
Schanz dominated the 200 Breast this season in dual meets as well, winning four of seven events. Most notably, the Bruin newcomer swept the Bay Area schools when they visited Westwood in January. Against Oregon State/UCSB, Arizona, and USC, she placed second in the 200 Breast.
At the Texas Invitational, Caroline McTaggart broke one of the oldest UCLA freshman records in the 200 Free with her 17th-place time of 1:46.90. The previous record of 1:47.16 was set in 2001 by Malin Svahnstrom, a former All-American. Sophomore Katie Grover nabbed the team's only first-place finish of the Invitational, swimming a personal best in the championship final of the 200 Butterfly. Grover's time of 1:55.45 moved her to fourth on UCLA's All-Time list.
A plethora of swimmers will be looking to improve on their respective NCAA 'B' marks, of which UCLA has 26.
Among the eight Bruin divers, six have already qualified for next month's NCAA Zone E Diving Championships, which will be held March 7-9 in Flagstaff, Ariz. Polyakova, Ciara Monahan, and Katerina Friese have each qualified in the 1-Meter and 3-Meter, Montana Monahan in the 1-Meter and platform, and Éloïse Bélanger and Annika Lenz in all three diving events.
Polyakova will look to dominate the diving board this week. The Pac-12 Diver of the Month for the months of November and December has won 12 of 14 diving competitions since October.
You can watch the Pac-12 Swimming (W) & Diving (M/W) Championships on Pac-12 Networks and online via tape delay for subscribers with a username and password from your TV provider. You can also follow @Pac12Networks on Twitter for updates throughout the week.
See the action from the first two days debut on Pac-12 Network on Friday, Feb. 26, at 10 a.m. PT. Day three action airs Saturday, Feb. 27, at 10 a.m. PT, and the final day will air Sunday, Feb. 28, at 10 a.m. PT.
Tickets are available for purchase online and will also be available at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center.