This weekend marks the UCLA swim and dive team’s first Pac-12 competition since November, and the competition has only gotten tougher since then.
Their last conference meets saw UCLA take down both Arizona and Arizona State, but back-to-back meets against No. 2 Stanford and No. 7 California promise to be a greater challenge.
“It’s going to be a really good competition. They are two of the best teams in the nation, so it’s going to be a really fast two meets and … a preview for Pac-12,” said senior swimmer Andrea Reigel.
In preparation for the upcoming championships, the divers have been concentrating on fine-tuning their dives and the swimmers have been pushing their limits.
With just a few weeks of heavy training left, the swimmers are swimming faster than they have before and trying to reach their peak performance.
“We’re still working hard. Now is not the time to rest. We have to kind of build into our rest (time), so we’ll go up there and give it our best shot,” said coach Cyndi Gallagher.
Although the team realizes this weekend will be a challenge, it will be focusing on its own racing and disregarding what the other team is doing.
Gallagher said the team is trained to ignore the rankings and to think of each race as an individual event, something she said has helped the Bruins build success.
Though this strategy helps mentally prepare the swimmers and divers, they still feel the intensity and rigor of each event.
“It’s more about doing what I know I can do and not worrying about what (the other team is) doing because they have Olympians on their team. So I’m just going to go in and swim my race,” Reigel said.
In 2012, one of Cal’s senior swimmers, Caitlin Leverenz, competed in her first Olympics and came home with the bronze medal in the 200-meter individual medley, but UCLA’s swimmers are trying to not let it pressure them.
“It’s more about making sure I relax and I don’t get too intense … because I’m a distance swimmer and it’s a long race, so you just have to relax and go for it instead of forcing everything,” said junior swimmer Lauren Baker.
Even with the nerves of a long-awaited return to conference competition, the Bruins’ months of preparation will serve them well.
“I think everyone’s excited to race. We’ve had a really good year so far and I think we just need to keep that momentum going,” Reigel said.
Email Patricio at mpatricio@media.ucla.edu