UCLA
NCAA Championships
Thirteen Bruins Try to Make Splash at NCAAs
March 14, 2017 | Swimming & Diving
INDIANAPOLIS โ No. 19 UCLA will be well-represented at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships, to begin Wednesday. Nineย swimmers and four divers make up the 11 Bruins competing across four days and 19 events at the Indiana University Natatorium.
Bruin swimmers Katy Campbell, Isabella Goldsmith, Katie Grover, Sarah Kaunitz, Kenisha Liu, Linnea Mack, Emma Schanz, Sandra Soe and Madison White will take on the NCAA's best between the lane lines, while divers Eloise Belanger, Annika Lenz, Ciara Monahan and Maria Polyakova will look to build upon successful trips to the Pac-12 Championships and the NCAA Zone E Championships in recent weeks.
Wednesday's evening session, along with Thursday's sessions and the morning sessions on Friday and Saturday will be streamed live on NCAA.com and indianasportscorp.org/ncaasd. ESPN3.com will stream the final sessions Friday and Saturday. ESPNU will air a two-hour broadcast via tape delay at 7:00 p.m. (ET) on Tuesday, March 28. Live results for all events will be available at NCAA.com.
UCLA will be represented in each of the five relay events, beginning with the 800 Free Relay in Wednesday's lone event at 6:00 p.m. (ET). Liu, White, Grover and Campbell made up the quartet responsible for establishing a school-record time of 7:04.84 in the event at Pac-12 Championships.
The 200 Free Relay team of Mack, Sarah Kaunitz, Grover and Goldsmith came up just short of a school record with a time of 1:29.17 at Pac-12 Championships, but still gave UCLA a provisional standard time and eligibility at the NCAAs. That relay will begin Thursday's finals. Liu and Schanz posted "B" times in the 200 IM at Pac-12s and will begin the non-relay events for the Bruins. They will be followed by Mack, who will look to again set a new school record in the 50 Free. The senior shattered her own record with a time of 21.67 at Pac-12s.
Thursday will also mark the beginning of diving events with the 1-meter competition. Polyakova took first place at the NCAA Zone E Championships in Flagstaff, Ariz., with a school-record score of 339.05, and will be joined by Belanger, Lenz and Monahan at NCAAs. The 400 Medley Relay will conclude Thursday's events. Bruins Mack, Amy Okada, Grover and Goldsmith posted a school-record time of 3:34.02 at Pac-12s.
Four Bruins will tackle individual events Friday, beginning with Schanz and the 400 IM. The sophomore posted a time of 4:09.52 at the SMU Classic when the season began in October. Grover, meanwhile, will take on the 100 Fly. The junior from Atlanta, Ga. fell just short of a school record in the event at Pac-12s with a time of 51.95. In the 100 Back, Mack will again look to improve on her own school-record time of 50.56, earned at Pac-12s.
All eyes will be on Polyakova Friday, as she looks to continue her 3-meter winning ways at NCAAs. The junior won the Pac-12 Championship in the event last month, before taking first place at Zones, as well. Another multi-Bruin field will be present, as Polyakova will be joined by Lenz and Monahan in the final springboard event. The day will then conclude with the 200 Medley Relay, as the Bruin team will look to improve upon its school-record and qualifying time of 1:36.92, set by Mack, Sarah Kaunitz, Grover and Goldsmith.
Soe andย Campbell will participate in the 1650 Free to begin the final day of events Saturday. White, who topped her own school-record time in the 100 Back by one-tenth of a second (1:53.39) will look to do so again in the first individual event. Mack will again attempt to make her 100 Free school record of Pac-12 Championships time of 47.77 a short-lived one, while Schanz joins the field in the 200 Breast. Grover will conclude Bruin participation in individual swimming events when she takes her 1:55.76, set at USC last month, into the 200 Fly.
Two Bruins will wrap up the diving events, when Belanger and Lenz take on the platform. At last week's Zones, Belanger posted a third-place score of 547.40, while Lenz finished fifth at 543.20. The 400 Free Relay will then close the four days of swimming and diving, as yet another Bruin quartet will take on the nation's best. At Pac-12s, Grover, Mack, Liu and Sarah Kaunitz fell less than a tenth of a second short of a school record, with a time of 3:15.89.
Players Mentioned
