This weekend was always going to be a challenging one for the UCLA swim and dive team.
The level of competition was intense and that resulted in a 180 – 120 loss to No. 4 Stanford on Friday and a 183.5 to 116.5 loss to No. 1 Cal on Saturday.
Senior freestyle swimmer Ting Quah spoke about how strong Stanford and Cal are as teams as they provided a very stiff test for UCLA.
“Stanford and Cal are really good schools. They have really fast girls and really good racers. It was a big two days for us,” Quah said.
Freshman diver Danni Repper said that the high level of competition brings more adrenaline to the team. This can help and hurt the team. According to senior freestyle swimmer Lauren Baker, the team had some issues racing on the first day.
“I think that we had a few issues just getting on the wall and racing. I think we just upped the intensity [Saturday] and raced a lot more,” Baker said.
Ahead of the meet, many of the Bruins knew the competition was going to be intense. Baker’s 500m Freestyle was one of the races that was going to be close.
The 500m quickly became a two-person race with Cal’s four-time Olympic gold medalist Missy Franklin and Baker swimming out ahead of the rest of the field. In the end, Baker ended up beating Franklin.
“I was really thinking about relaxing it a little more today,” Baker said. “I stayed strong and long in the first 150 and then just really built into good speed and once I had the lead just tried to keep it and extend it a little more.”
Overall, the team is excited to face USC and travel for the Pac-12 Championships despite the losses this weekend. The Bruins said they feel that they are in a good place heading into these races.
“We are all excited for Pac-12s and SC. We are all really close as a team and are really excited to start tapering and racing and swimming faster,” Quah said.
The team returns to action on Monday February, 17 against USC.