The No. 16 UCLA swim and dive team kicked off its 2008 season with a solid performance at home on Saturday, cruising past the University of San Diego, 195-95.
The Bruins won every event but one, and swept six events during their dominating performance against the Toreros.
“It was the first opportunity to see how the freshman can compete,” swim coach Cyndi Gallagher said. “We were pretty tired and we wanted to see how people would respond to that.
“Everyone was really good I thought. We didn’t have anything that was way off. People made mistakes, and we need to make changes, … but I felt good about where everyone is at.”
En route to their first win of the year, multiple Bruins had standout performances. Seniors Anna Poteete and Madeleine Stanton, along with sophomore Brittany Beauchan and freshman Yasi Jahanshahi, all won two events on Saturday.
“Beauchan stepped up,” Gallagher said. “She’s kind of taken the place of (alumna) Nicolette (Teo). She had a year to learn and watch and she just stepped right up.”
On the diving side, seniors Marisa Samaniego and Brittany Hill won the 1M and 3M respectively, while leading their teams to event sweeps.
Up next for the divers is the Trojan Invitational on Friday. The swimmers will not compete again until they host UC Santa Barbara and Oregon State on Nov. 7.
But for now, Gallagher is just happy that the team has made much progress.
“It’s always great to get a W,” Gallagher said. “But we are looking more to progressing and perfecting the details of racing. I think they did a pretty good job of that.”