Swim & Dive Heads East for Georgia Fall Invitational
November 28, 2018 | Swimming & Diving
ATHENS, Ga. โ This week, the UCLA swim & dive team will compete for the last time in the 2018 calendar year, flying east for the Georgia Fall Invitational at the Gabrielsen Natatorium on the campus of the University of Georgia. The meet is scheduled to run from Thursday, Nov. 29 through Saturday, Dec. 1.
Swimming prelim events are scheduled to begin at 6:30 a.m. PT (9:30 a.m. local time in Athens) each day, while diving prelims start at 8:00 a.m. PT (11:00 a.m. local). Finals will begin at 2:00 p.m. PT on Thursday and Friday and at 12:00 p.m. PT on Saturday.
Other teams competing this week include Michigan, Virginia, California, and host Georgia.
Bruin divers have been regular participants in the Georgia Fall Invitational, competing in three of the last four iterations of the meet. However, UCLA's swimmers will also be competing this year.
UCLA is coming off a multi-week layoff, as the divers last competed on Nov. 11 and the swimmers last competed on Nov. 3. The swim team had a home meet against UC Santa Barbara and UC San Diego on Nov. 10 postponed due to poor air quality in the area from local wildfires.
With that postponement, UCLA will end the fall season with a 3-0 record, marking the first time since 2012 that the Bruins went undefeated in dual meets for the fall season.
In last year's Georgia Fall Invitational, UCLA placed two divers in the top-five of all three events.
Most impressively, then-junior Eloise Belanger and then-senior Ciara Monahan placed 1-2 in the 1m championship. Belanger and Monahan also went 4-5 in the 3m championship, while Belanger (third) and Traci Shiver (232.95, fifth) earned points on tower.
Shiver, a senior, is one of three athletes in the Bruins' diving contingent. She will be joined by sophomore Alice Yanovsky and senior Madeline Russell.
Yanovsky will be making her season-debut this week after sitting out the first month-plus of the year due to injury. Her best result at the Georgia Invitational last year was in the 1m, where she was ninth with a finals score of 246.60.
Russell has appeared in two away meets this year, at Utah and the Trojan Diving Invitational. She has logged season-bests of 226.50 in 1m, 218.18 in 3m, and 201.25 in platform. ย
UCLA's standouts in the pool so far this year include junior Kenisha Liu (two individual event wins, UCLA's best times in the 50 free and 200 free), junior Amy Okada (has won five of six dual meet fly events), freshman Claire Grover (four events wins, team-best times in the 100 free and 100 breast), and senior Sandra Soe (won five of the six distance free events in which she's competed). Senior Emma Schanz (team-best 55.09 in the 100 back) and freshman Mara Newman (team best 1:59.59 in the 200 back) have helped UCLA dominate the backstroke events so far this season.
Live stats for the meet will be available and Georgia will provide a live stream of the finals on both Thursday and Friday. Links to all can be found at UCLABruins.com on the women's swimming and diving schedule page.
Players Mentioned
