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Toby Jackson

Bruins Prepare to Face Crosstown Rival USC on Friday

Swimming & Diving

UCLA and USC are coming off the first tie in series history.

LOS ANGELES – The No. 25-ranked UCLA swimming & diving team wraps up its regular season slate this Friday, traveling across town to take on No. 15 USC at Uytengsu Aquatics Center.

The teams will square off in a 12:00 p.m. dual meet on Friday before the Bruins' contingent of divers returns on Saturday for the platform diving championship, starting at 10:00 a.m.

Admission to both competitions is free of charge.

UCLA sits at 8-2 overall on the year and 4-2 in Pac-12 action. The Bruins ran off eight straight wins to start the year to get off to the program's best start since 2012-13, but most recently dropped its first decisions of the year to No. 1 Stanford on Feb. 1 and then-No. 4 Cal on Feb. 2.

Last year's rivalry match with the Trojans at Spieker Aquatics Center resulted in a 150-150 tie, the first-ever deadlock in the series. UCLA came back with a strong second half in that meet to escape with the tie, cementing the decision with a school and meet-record time of 1:28.91 in the 200 free relay by the the Bruins' A Team (Kenisha Liu, Katie Grover, Sarah Kaunitz, Amy Okada).

Other Bruin winners from last year's meet included Sandra Soe (1650 free), Liu (100 free, 200 free), Eloise Belanger (1-meter and 3-meter diving), Emma Schanz (200 breast, 200 IM), and Margaux Verger Gourson (500 free). All but Verger Gourson are back with UCLA this year.

Meanwhile, USC is 6-2 on the year with a 4-2 mark in league competition. Like the Bruins, the Trojans are coming off losses to Cal and Stanford, their first defeats of the year.

This week is not the first time UCLA has been at Uytengsu this season. In November, three of UCLA's divers competed in the Trojan Diving Invitational. Traci Shiver was the third-place finisher in the 1-meter championship with a score of 246.90, a mark which still holds as her second-best of the year. Freshman Veronica Thompson was the Bruins' highest finisher on the final two days of competition, placing sixth in 3-meter at 237.30 while she was fifth on tower (213.40).

While she did not participate in the Trojan Diving Invitational, senior Eloise Belanger has been in the spotlight since making her return to UCLA in January. In her season debut at the Bruin Diving Invitational, she qualified for NCAA Zone Championships in all three events. She was runner-up in 3-meter to teammate Maria Polyakova but followed up by winning the platform and 1-meter titles.

Most recently, she was named the Pac-12 Diver of the Week on Feb. 6 after winning three of four events against Cal and Stanford while setting meet records in both 1-meter (314.18) and 3-meter (348.38) against the Cardinal.

Looking ahead, UCLA's next competition after this week will be at the Pac-12 Championships, held at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, Wash. From Feb. 27 to Mar. 3.