Despite falling to Stanford and California on consecutive days, the UCLA women’s swim team was all smiles during its post-game cooldown Saturday.
As the team listened to coach Cyndi Gallagher read a long list of personal-best and winning times, hoots and hollers filled the chilly afternoon air.
The Bruins might as well have won.
“I thought for the most part we had two good days of swimming,” Gallagher said. “We made some changes from the first day to the second day that we needed to make, and we even made some changes from the first half of the Cal meet to the second half of the Cal meet. I thought we raced the No. 3 and No. 5 teams (in the country) pretty hard all the way through.”
The No. 14 Bruins (4-3, 2-3 Pac-10) lost to the No. 3 Cardinals (6-1, 5-0 Pac-10) on Friday, 166-133, then fell to the No. 5 Golden Bears (5-1, 4-1 Pac-10) on Saturday, 170-130. Despite the final tallies, UCLA recorded a combined 13 event wins over the two-day span, keeping both meets close to the end.
Senior Nicolette Teo went 4-for-4 against the Bay Area schools, winning both the 100 and 200 breaststroke events Friday and Saturday. Junior Anna Poteete also had an impressive weekend, tying for first place both days in the 50 freestyle and winning the 100 freestyle against Cal on Friday.
Poteete said she was upset with her first-place tie Saturday but pleased overall with both her personal performance and the work of the team.
“I didn’t pick up my tempo enough, and I should have won,” Poteete said. “(But) I was really proud of myself. I didn’t get intimidated. I think we, as a team, did really well. Everyone had their bumps and bruises, everyone was really sore, but no one let that get in the way.”
Junior Madeleine Stanton and freshmen Emily Bibb and Sam Vanden Berge all also posted winning times in the dual meets. Vanden Berge won the 1000 freestyle and Stanton won the 200 backstroke Friday, while Bibb won the 500 freestyle Saturday.
Bibb said that although this was only her fourth dual meet and third meet at home, she feels comfortable swimming at the college level.
“I’m adjusted, and I really like (college swimming),” Bibb said. “It’s really fun just being with a great team of girls and seeing the work that you do with those teammates pay off in the end.”
Bruin divers found equal success over the weekend, bouncing back from a subpar performance a week earlier at the Hawaii Invitational.
Junior Marisa Samaniego nearly swept the competition, winning the 1-meter both days, along with the 3-meter Saturday. On Friday, the Bruins were without the services of junior Tess Schofield, who had a hand injury. Upon returning to competition Saturday, though, Schofield posted solid second-place scores behind Samaniego in both the 1-meter and 3-meter.
“We are definitely going in the right direction,” dive coach Tom Stebbins said. “I like the team dynamic that we displayed today. I felt we were in control from start to finish and I’ll look for us to kind of continue to build on that as we look to the end of the year.”
Gallagher said that this weekend’s results show that the Bruins can compete with any team in the nation.
Poteete said she is excited because the team remains under the radar as Pac-10s and NCAAs approach.
“Everyone just kind of takes us for granted,” Poteete said. “They’re like, “˜Oh, UCLA, they’ve always been pretty good, but not that good.’ But I think we’re going to be a really amazing team. And the best thing is that no one is looking out for us.”