Losing never felt so good.
While walking away 0-2 from the weekend’s meets against
Stanford and Cal, UCLA left with 22 season- or lifetime-best
achievements, as well as with hopes higher than before.
“Since I’m a senior, I thought I had just
experienced everything. But these past two meets were the most
exciting ones that I’ve ever been to,” senior Stacy
Kearney said. “They just showed how much potential we
have.”
Competing against the Cardinal in Palo Alto on Friday, the No.
12 Bruin swimming and diving team ended a close race with a 159-141
loss. UCLA followed the next day with another narrow loss at
Berkeley, 157.5-142.5.
“It was a really exciting weekend. Both meets came down to
the final relays, and the diving team also really kept us in there
with their performances,” head swim coach Cyndi Gallagher
said.
The environment at Palo Alto itself was a challenge, where at
least a thousand children under the age of 12 had joined the
Stanford crowd. The Bruins still succeeded in breaking a few meet
records, a trend which continued at Berkeley.
Top Bruin finishers at Stanford included freshman Kim
Vandenberg, winning the 100 and 200-meter butterfly, and junior
Malin Svahnstrom, who took first in the 200-meter freestyle with an
NCAA provisional qualifying time.
In Berkeley senior Regan Gosnell finished first in the one-meter
springboard, sweeping first in the three-meter springboard as
well.
The chaotic, noisy competitions might have “made [the
weekend] like a circus,” according to Gallagher, but the
cacophony at the meets seemed to inspire the team to swim
faster.
“It was crazy, but it was the most fun experience
I’ve ever had, and we were all rooting for each other,”
junior Leslie Hovsepian said.
“I think at this point, we’re as good or better as
we were two years ago, when we had won the Pac-10
Championships,” Kearney said.
Gallagher, too, was confident with the performance of the Bruin
swimmers’ abilities.
“All in all, it was a good weekend, and despite the score
at the end, I felt that everyone was focused and swimming
fast,” she said. “Everyone was self-motivated and it
was nice to see that we were taking every opportunity to
race.”