The UCLA swim team landed a solid group of recruits for the upcoming 2013-2014 season, and with two of the top five recruits in the state, the Bruins earned the No. 9 spot in Swim Swam’s recruiting class rankings for 2013.
The squad will kick off the season when it travels to San Diego this Saturday.
“We have 12 new swimmers, and it is going to be a great opportunity for us to just see how they swim. I think this is good for the freshmen so they can see how fast the meet runs,” said swimming coach Cyndi Gallagher. “For me the most fun part is watching the freshmen, I always have a memory of that first meet.”
The Bruins had a solid season last year, finishing with an 11-3 record. Senior Ting Quah, a team captain, said she believes that the freshman recruits have already fit in with the team very well and believes that this year’s team has the ability to make improvements over last season.
“I’m excited. We haven’t had such a big class in a while so I think initially there were reservations about that. But each freshman really brings something to the team. I’m really excited to see how they do this weekend,” Quah said. “It is only week three of school, but we are acting and behaving like a team already; we have meshed really well.”
For a team that does not get the opportunity to travel as much as some of the other teams at UCLA, swim is looking forward to opening things up on the road by traveling to San Diego. Senior Anna Senko, also a team captain, said she believes that while the first home meet is always a special occasion every year, the chance to kick things off with a road meet may facilitate more team bonding.
“It will still be just as exciting, it will be fun to get on a bus and travel, we don’t do that as often as the other sports,” Senko said. “I think if anything it will add an extra layer of bonding to our team.”
In lieu of the large recruiting class, the team believes that it can do better by utilizing what each member of the recruiting class has to offer. As a team, Quah believes that the overall mindset and goals are of a higher caliber this season than last.
“I think we can definitely do better. There are definitely things we can learn from (last year) and do so much better on,” Quah said. “I am really excited for our relays this year, there are a bunch of sprinters in the freshman class so I’m excited to see how that would help our relays. I think as a team our mindset and goals are definitely better and higher than last season.”