UCLA
Arizona
UCLA Takes Care of Arizona, 177-123
November 04, 2022 | Swimming & Diving
LOS ANGELES โ The No. 20-ranked UCLA swim and dive team continued its unbeaten start to the season with a 177-123 dual meet win over Arizona on Friday afternoon at Spieker Aquatics Center.
The Bruins won of 10 of 16 events overall as a team, including nine of the 12 individual swim events. UCLA improved to 3-0 on the young season with the result.
Freshman Katrina Bellio and sophomore Ana Jih-Schiff led the way with a pair of individual wins apiece, sweeping the distance freestyle and breaststroke events, respectively.
Elsewhere, senior Rachel Rhee was a winner in the 200 free while placing second in the 100 free, and freshman Rosie Murphy won the 200 back while finishing runner-up in the 100 back.
Other event wins came courtesy of senior Sophia Kosturos (100 back), fifth-year Claire Grover (50 free), and sophomore Paige MacEachern (400 IM).
UCLA started off the meet with five consecutive event wins to jump out to a big lead early.
The quartet of Kosturos, Jih-Schiff, Gabby Dang, and Grover opened up the competition on a strong note for the Bruins, taking first in the 200 medley relay with a season-best time of 1:39.83.
Bellio followed up with a dominant win in the 1000 free at 10:03.46, beating out the field by over 21 seconds.
UCLA went 1-2 in each of the next two events, with Rhee (1:50.06) and senior Brooke Schaffer (1:50.79) pacing the 200 free followed by the tandem of Kosturos (54.71) and Murphy (55.00) in the 100 back.
The Bruins' early-meet winning streak was rounded out by Jih-Schiff's win in the 100 breast, as she (1:02.29) edged out Arizona's Kennedy Fisher by just over a tenth of a second.
Grover wrapped up the first half of the dual with a solid win in the 50 free at 22.62.
Over on the diving side, sophomore Zoe Jespersgaard impressed in the 3-meter competition, posting a collegiate-best score of 330.90. She was only prevented from a win by Arizona's Delaney Schnell, whose 370.95 approached the Spieker pool record. Schnell also was the 1M champion, beating out UCLA senior Hannah Butler (270.15).
Once action got re-started, fans were treated to a photo finish in the 100 free as Rhee (50.59) and Grover (50.77) both finished just behind the Wildcats' Maddy Burt (50.56).
UCLA responded with three consecutive wins after that to pull away even further, including runaway wins for Jih-Schiff in the 200 breast (2:13.55, five seconds better than the field) and Bellio in the 500 free (4:52.31, 10 seconds better than the field).
The Bruins placed four of the top five racers in the 400 IM to finish out the individual portion of the meet, with MacEachern (4:20.07) and freshman Ashley Kolessar (4:22.18) going 1-2.
UCLA returns to action with its second dual meet in as many days on Saturday morning, hosting Arizona State starting at 11:00 a.m. PT. Live results will be available on the MeetMobile app, and UCLA-centric updates can be found on the team Twitter account, @UCLASwimAndDive.
