No. 25 UCLA to Send Eight Swimmers to NCAAs

UCLA will have eight swimmers competing in the 2019 NCAA Championships (photo: Richard Quinton)

Photo by: Richard Quinton

No. 25 UCLA to Send Eight Swimmers to NCAAs

March 06, 2019 | Swimming & Diving

LOS ANGELES – No. 25 UCLA will be sending eight swimmers to the 2019 NCAA Championships in Austin, Tex. as the NCAA Swimming and Diving Committee announced on Wednesday the list of qualifying swimmers.

Four Bruin swimmers qualified for individual events: freshman Claire Grover, junior Kenisha Liu, freshman Mara Newman, and senior Sandra Soe. Another four – Maisie Jameson, Amy Okada, Emma Schanz, and Delaney Smith – will compete in relays. UCLA qualified for the 200 free, 400 free, and 400 medley relays.

Grover will compete in three individual events: the 50 free, 100 free, and the 100 breaststroke. She had the No. 17 time nationally in the 50 free after finishing third at Pac-12s with a time of 21.98. She will be the No. 18 seed in the 100 breast with a time of 59.50.

Liu also qualified for a trio of events, the 200 IM (seed time of 1:56.66), 100 free (48.56), and 200 free (1:45.52). This is the second straight year she qualified for those three events. At the 2018 NCAA Championships, she placed 35^th in 100 free (48.87) 40^th in the 200 free (1:47.02), and 49^th in the 200 IM (1:59.26).

Soe will be swimming in both the 500 free and 1650 free. She'll be the No. 21 seed in the 1650 free after posting a season-best time of 16:02.88 in the mile. Soe qualified for the same events last year at NCAAs, placing 31^st in the mile (16:10.42) and 50^th in the 500 free (4:45.13).

Last but not least, Newman will swim in both backstroke events. She is the No. 33 seed in the 200 back (1:53.73).

Meanwhile, a quartet of Bruins divers will compete next week in the NCAA Zone E Championships.

Senior Eloise Belanger qualified for all three events (1-meter, 3-meter, and platform), and fellow senior Maria Polyakova enters as one of the top seeds in both 1M and 3M. Sophomore Alice Yanovsky is set to compete in 3-meter and senior Traci Shiver made the cut on tower.

A total of 322 participants (281 swimmers and 41 divers) will compete in the championships. Swimmers qualified for the championships by meeting the established minimum time for the events in which they entered. Selected divers will be announced Sunday, March 17.