UCLA
Pac-12 Championships
UCLA Solid In First Day of Pac-12s
February 27, 2019 | Swimming & Diving
FEDERAL WAY, Wash. – No. 25 UCLA opened the 2019 Pac-12 Women's Swimming & Diving Championships on Wednesday evening with top-seven finishes in both the 200 medley and 800 freestyle relays.
After the first day of the four-day meet, UCLA is fifth in team scoring with 94 points.
The evening started for the Bruins (8-3) with a seventh-place finish in the 200 medley. UCLA's A Group of Emma Schanz, Claire Grover, Amy Okada, and Maisie Jameson completed the race in 1:38.24, an improvement of nearly one second of the Bruins' previous season-best.
Freshman Claire Grover was a standout for UCLA in the relay, swimming the fourth-best split in the breaststroke portion of the race at 26.94.
The Bruins' other two medley relay teams finished in 1:43.13 (Erica Vong, Emma Smethurst, Sophie Clarkowski, Mara Newman) and 1:43.47 (Abriana Howard, Elena Escalas, Gabrielle Anderson, Isabella Barattolo).
UCLA followed with a sixth-place finish in the 800 freestyle relay, coming in at 7:06.92, improving over 10 seconds on its seed time. Junior Kenisha Liu led UCLA in the 800, swimming her portion of the race in in a team-best 1:45.52. The Bruins' top group was rounded out by Sandra Soe (1:46.63), Delaney Smith (1:47.61), and Okada (1:47.16).
The Bruins had just one other team in the 800 free (Ella Kirschke, Lisa Kaunitz, Olivia Andrew, Lucy Agnew), finishing in 7:15.29.
UCLA continues action at Pac-12s tomorrow. Scheduled events include 1-meter diving, 500 free, 200 IM, 50 free, and 200 free relay. The Bruins have the top two seeds going into 1M in Maria Polyakova and Eloise Belanger.
Players Mentioned
