UCLA
Stanford
UCLA Falls at No. 3 Stanford, 176-116
January 27, 2023 | Swimming & Diving
STANFORD, Calif. โ The No. 24-ranked UCLA swim and dive team absorbed a 176-116 loss to No. 3 Stanford on Friday afternoon at Avery Aquatic Center.
The result snapped a streak of six consecutive dual-meet wins for the Bruins (6-1, 3-1 Pac-12) to open the season. Stanford improved to 6-0, 5-0.
The Bruins had a pair of event wins on Friday, as sophomore Zoe Jespersgaard claimed first in 3-meter while Eva Carlson took gold in the 100 breast.
Senior Rachel Rhee also had a strong overall performance, finishing runner-up in both the 50 free and 100 free.
With diving starting about an hour before swimming, Jespersgaard brought home an event win for UCLA before the meet had even officially begun. Jespersgaard posted a score of 326.15 in 3M, the second-best score of her collegiate career and over 30 points better than Stanford's top diver. Senior Hannah Butler was second at 297.40.
Carlson led the Bruins in a 1-3-5 finish in the 100 breast, as she went 1:01.53 for her third NCAA B Cut of the year. Sophomore Ana Jih-Schiff (1:02.94) and junior Bailey Herbert (1:05.70) also scored.
The first half of the meet closed out with a tight race in the 50 free, as Rhee (22.64) touched just .12 seconds behind the Cardinal's Claire Curzan.
On the re-start, Rhee went 49.80 in the 100 free for a second straight runner-up finish. It was her third time breaking the 50-second mark in that event this year.
Back on the diving side, the Bruins went 2-3-4 in 1-meter to close out the springboard events. Freshman Eden Cheng (262.40) was UCLA's top finisher in 1M.
The latter half of the meet saw strong UCLA performances in the 200 breast (Jih-Schiff led a 2-3-4 finish for UCLA at 2:14.98) and 100 fly (Gabby Dang went 54.05 for her third-best time of the year, and best outside the Ohio State Invitational).
The Bruins closed out the meet with a runner-up placement in the 200 free relay, as the quartet of Rhee, Dang, senior Sophia Kosturos, and fifth-year Claire Grover landed UCLA's third-best time of the year at 1:31.89.
UCLA concludes its Bay Area road trip on Saturday morning, facing California in Berkeley starting at 11:00 a.m. PT. The Bruins enter that meet with a 26-12 lead in team scoring based on Friday's diving results in Stanford.
Players Mentioned
