UCLA
Arizona
Swim & Dive Defeats Arizona 161-139
November 02, 2018 | Swimming & Diving
LOS ANGELES โ The UCLA swimming and diving team recorded a 161-139 win over Pac-12 rival Arizona on Friday afternoon, making the team's first home meet at Speiker Aquatics Center a successful one.
The Bruins (2-0) split the 1m and 3m diving competitions, but edged out the Wildcats (2-1) in the swimming part of the program, winning eight of the 14 events.
The meet came down to the very last event of the day, with the Bruins relying on their A team of Kenisha Liu, Claire Grover, Amy Okada, and Ella Kirschke to win the 400 freestyle relay to cement the victory. The UCLA foursome topped the second-place team, Arizona's A, by over three seconds.
Liu had an eye-catching day for the Bruins, winning the 100 free (50.67) and 200 free (1:49.46), helping the UCLA A team to a meet-clinching victory in the 400 free relay (3:22.15), and missing out on a trifecta in the freestyle by a sliver, finishing second in the 50 free (23.34; just .02 seconds behind the first-place finisher).
ย "The races were really close all day and there was a lot of good energy," said UCLA head swimming and diving coach Cyndi Gallagher. "It was a 100% team effort today. We made some mistakes, but we never gave up and just said 'next race, let's go.' I like that attitude, they're really into the process, and this one step closer to getting better."
The Bruins got off to a bit of a slow start on Friday, with Arizona pulling out wins in the first two events: the 200 medley relay and the 1000 free. After that, UCLA bounced back to win four of the five remaining swimming events in the first half of the meet, leading to a 75-75 deadlock at the halfway break.
Liu gave UCLA its first win of the day in 200 free, making a strong push in the final 100 yards to win it at 1:49.46. Freshmen Delaney Smith (1:51.35) and Ella Kirscke (1:52.20) finished 3-5 to deliver additional points to the Bruins.
Senior Emma Schanz won the 100 back for the second straight week, edging out the second place finisher with a time of 55.09.
Freshman Claire Grover made it three straight wins for UCLA in the 100 breast, coming in at 1:02.06.
Junior Amy Okada started a dominant afternoon in the butterfly with a first-place finish in the 200 fly, the only swimmer to break the two-minute mark at 1:59.70. She added another win in the 100 fly later in the day, finishing in 54.84. She and Liu were the lone Bruins with multiple individual wins on the afternoon.
After the first break, UCLA dominated the 200 back, placing Mara Newman (1:59.69), Jennifer Lathrop (2:02.40), and Delaney Smith (2:02.93) 1-2-3.
Senior Sandra Soe shaved nearly 10 seconds off her season-best to take first in the 500 free, touching in 4:55.29.
Senior Maria Polyakova was the Bruins' top diver on Friday, taking first in the 1m (310.88) and second in the 3m (265.28). Traci Shiver and Veronica Thompson both finished top-four in both events. Shiver was third in the 1m (221.25) and fourth in the 3m (season-high 230.18) while Thompson was third in the 3m (season-high 244.95) and fourth in the 1m (220.95).
UCLA is right in back in action tomorrow morning, hosting Arizona State at Spieker for a 10:30 a.m. meet.
Players Mentioned
