UCLA
USC
Kinnear, Upshaw Shine on Senior Day
February 13, 2016 | Swimming & Diving
LOS ANGELES, Calif. โ Five Bruins posted wins against crosstown rival USC in UCLA's last regular season outing on Friday afternoon.ย Closing out their collegiate home careers, Katie Kinnear and Arlyn Upshaw swam the top times in the 200 Fly and 400 IM, respectively.ย
Kinnear trailed USC's Maddie Wright into the last turn of the 200 Fly, but a late surge down the home stretch helped propel the Bruin senior into the wall for the first touch.ย With a career-best 1:56.60, Kinnear edged Wright to take the event.
"It came down to wanting to beat SC," said Kinnear of what fueled her final push. "After four years, the drive to beat them builds more and more.ย I just wanted to beat SC and beat the girl next to me.ย I swam my own race thoughโI didn't really look at Maddie until the last 25 yards.ย I saw her and thought, 'I still have some left in meโI can do this.'"
"Katie coming back to win the 200 Fly as a senior was huge," said UCLA head coach Cyndi Gallagher of Kinnear's performance. "I really saw her fight out there.ย She made a decision that she didn't care how hard it was; she was going to touch first because this is her pool."ย
Junior Linnea Mack also recorded a win on Friday, posting the top mark and setting a new pool record in the 100 Back (52.16).ย The previous record of 52.69 was set by Stanford's Janet Hu when the Bruins hosted the Cardinal at the Breast Cancer Awareness Meet back in January.ย ย ย
Madison White notched the Bruins' third win of the meet.ย The junior topped the competition in the 200 Back by more than three seconds.ย Her mark of 1:54.44 was an NCAA B qualifying time.
Closing out the individual events, Upshaw edged USC's Destiny Nelson by .60 seconds to capture the 400 IM.ย
"We weren't perfect today, but I was really happy with how we swam," said Gallagher.ย "We swam fast.ย The seniors were awesomeโthey all did great.ย We had some great leaders out there."
On the boards, the Bruins went 1, 2, 3 in the 1-meter event, led by sophomore Maria Polyakova's top mark of 295.73.ย Freshman Eloise Belangerย (287.70) and junior Annika Lenz (278.40) placed second and third, respectively.ย Sophomore Ciara Monahan also recorded a top-five finish in the event, finishing fifth with a 237.30.
In the 3-meter event, Bélanger, freshman Kat Friese, and Polyakova finished second, third, and fourth, respectively.ย
The Bruins celebrated Senior Day against USC on Friday, honoring Kinnear, Upshaw, Madison Applegate, Montana Monahan, Shannon Cheung, and Rachel Owen in their last collegiate outing at home.
Next up, the Bruins head to the Pac-12 Championships in Federal Way, Wash., to be held Feb. 24-27.ย The event will be televised on Pac-12 Networks.ย ย ย
Players Mentioned
