Over the past six months, UCLA women’s swim team has gone up against some of the toughest competition the nation has to offer. The Pac-10 Women’s Swimming Championship, starting today and running through Saturday, will not be an exception to that trend.
One look at the CSCAA Women’s Swimming rankings reveals how strong the conference is. Four schools sit in the top 10: No. 2 Arizona, No. 4 Stanford, No. 5 Cal and No. 9 USC. It comes as no surprise that UCLA’s four losses this year came against those four teams.
“It’s unbelievable this year,” coach Cyndi Gallagher said. “I mean, we have the toughest conference in the nation.”
Despite not posting a dual meet win against the top rung of the Pac-10, several swimmers hold top seeds going into the preliminaries over the next four days.
For the Bruins, success starts with the four swimmers who have already qualified for the NCAA Championships in three weeks: juniors Brittany Beauchan and Lauren Hall, and sophomores Bianca Casciari and Yasi Jahanshahi. Beauchan holds the No. 1 seed in both the 100-yard breaststroke and 200-yard breaststroke at the championships, having posted the best times in the conference in both events this season, while Hall, Casciari and Jahanshahi all hold seeds top 10 seeds in other events.
Every swimmer will have a lot on her plate, though. The format of the meet (seven sessions over four days) is very much different from a dual meet, and allows each swimmer to swim in more races.
Gallagher believes the program she has put her swimmers through, which has been in effect since early September, will allow them to peak this week. Gallagher has had a series of shorter practices over the last two weeks, a process known as tapering that prepares them for the competition ahead.
“They are thoroughly tapered,” she said. “Anytime (they’re) resting or tapering, they get excited.”
This is the last chance for swimmers to post an NCAA qualifying time this year, and the goals are the same as they were six months ago: swim lifetime bests and get under the NCAA marks.
Gallagher said she hasn’t stressed this more than any other meet this year; her swimmers know the training has been put in and the times will follow.
“It’s still water, and it’s still the same amount of laps, and you’re still standing behind blocks, and you’re still having to do the same thing you’ve been practicing for six months,” she said.