AUBURN, Alabama “”mdash; For the second day in a row, the relay
unit got UCLA off to a good start. On Thursday it was the 200 yard
freestyle relay which started the day by qualifying for the finals
in the first event of the morning.
On Friday it was a similar story. In the second day of
competition, the Bruin 200y medley relay took 16th place in a very
competitive pool. The foursome (Taylor Spivey, Leslie Hovsepian,
Kristen Lewis and Sara Platzer) recorded a time of 1:41.12 in the
consolation final.
Along with a superb performance by junior Malin Svahnstrom, the
relay performance boosted the Bruins’ team point total to secure
10th place after two days of competition.
Svahnstrom was definitely the high point for UCLA on Friday. The
Swedish swimmer won her qualifying heat in 1:47.21 to obtain the
13th seed in the 200y freestyle.
“Malin did a great job,” head coach Cyndi Gallagher
said. “She was in a slow qualifying heat, so she challenged
the rest of the pool to keep up with her, and no one
could.”
Svahnstrom nearly matched her qualifying time in the evening
consolation final. She swam the 200y in 1:47.53, good enough for
third place in the consolation final and 11th place overall.
“My evening swim was not great, but it was not that
bad,” the junior said. “I came out a little faster in
my prelim race.”
Senior Regan Gosnell, the only UCLA diver in Auburn, improved on
her 20th-place finish in the one-meter springboard from the day
earlier. She took 15th in the three-meter springboard by recording
a score of 475.35, scoring two team points for the Bruins.
“I am so excited that I was able to score points for the
team,” Gosnell said. “That was really my only goal
coming to Auburn, I wanted to score team points, so having done
that takes a lot of pressure off me tomorrow.”
The diver will compete in the three-meter platform Saturday.
UCLA’s 800y freestyle relay finished the night with an
impressive performance. Vandenberg, Platzer, Lindsey Smart and
Svahnstrom finished ninth with a time of 7:14.76 in the event. Down
almost a full second to Arizona State going into the final leg of
the relay, Svahnstrom took charge. The junior swam a 1:47.32 anchor
split, solidifying second place in the heat for the Bruins.
For the rest of the team, Friday was a matter of near misses and
bad luck.
Lewis, despite a very fast effort in the 100y butterfly, missed
qualifying for the consolation finals by a mere two spots.
“Sometimes, you just get unlucky and miss the finals by a
tenth of a second like happened to Kristen,” Gallagher
said.
The second day slump was not much of a surprise to
Gallagher.
“We knew that today was not going to be our strongest
day,” she said.
“We are better than we swam in the prelims this morning,
and now it is just a matter of learning very quickly form our
mistakes. Tomorrow should be a big day.”
The Bruins conclude competition Saturday, with the preliminaries
beginning at 11 a.m. CST and finals commencing at 7 p.m. CST.