University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
UCLA
Denver
UCLA Clinches Win Over Denver in Final Home Dual of 2022-23
January 14, 2023 | Swimming & Diving
LOS ANGELES โ The UCLA swim dive and team clinched a win over Denver in its final home dual meet of the season on Saturday morning at Spieker Aquatics Center.
The Bruins (6-0) won all 14 races in the rain-drenched meet, bringing the swim-only score to 156-98. The final score will be adjusted based on the results of this weekend's Bruin Diving Invitational.
Eleven different UCLA swimmers logged individual wins, led by sophomore Paige MacEachern who had a meet-best two victories (200 fly, 500 free).
The senior quartet of Sophia Kosturos, Claire Grover, Gabby Dang, and Rachel Rhee teamed up to deliver a pair of relay wins for the Bruins, and each logged one individual win as well.
UCLA opened the dual with a demonstrative win in the 400 medley relay, with the seniors combining to post a time of 3:42.96, over six seconds faster than the field.
Freshman Katrina Bellio followed that up with a dominant showing in the first individual race of the day, the 1000 free. Bellio went a best time of 9:45.62, and was the lone swimmer to beat the 10-minute mark.
Next up was the 200 free, which saw Rhee (1:50.89) and sophomore Gizem Guvenc (1:51.04) battled it out to finish 1-2.
Sophomore Eva Carlson (1:02.89 in the 100 breast) and MacEachern (2:02.94 in the 200 fly) followed with solid wins of their own, and Grover (22.93) closed the first half of the meet by out-sprinting the field in the 50 free.
On the re-start, senior Brooke Schaffer (51.48) kept it going for UCLA with a win in the 100 free, edging out Guvenc (51.51).
Freshman Rosie Murphy (1:59.51) followed that by ending up as the lone swimmer to break two minutes in the 200 back. Sophomore Ana Jif-Schiff had a similarly-wide victory in the 200 breast (2:15.75), beating out the field by three-plus seconds.
MacEachern completed her double with a solid performance in the 500 free (5:00.05), earning her first win in that event this season.
Dang (54.76 in the 100 fly) and Kolessar (4:27.21 in the 400 IM) brought home wins in the final two individual races of the day, before the seniors went 1:32.39 in the 200 free relay to close out the meet.
UCLA is still in the middle of hosting its final home competition of the year, the Bruin Diving Invitational, which runs through Sunday afternoon. Bruin swimmers are next in action at Stanford on Jan. 27 and California on Jan. 28.
Players Mentioned
