This week, the UCLA swim team and dive team both traveled to the East Coast, but to different destinations. The swimmers flew to Greensboro, N.C. for a four-day meet at the 2014 AT&T Winter National Championships. While the divers participated in a three-day meet at the Georgia Fall Invitational held in Athens, Ga., over the weekend. Both teams came back to Westwood with victories.
The UCLA swim team won the women’s college section of the Winter National Championships for the first time with a total score of 441 points. Michigan placed second with 407 points.
The Bruins aren’t frequent visitors to the short-course Winter National Championships, but said they were determined to participate in the meet this year because Greensboro is going to hold the NCAA championships this coming March. The team went to North Carolina to get familiar with the venue and the three-hour time difference.
“It was brutal,” said coach Cyndi Gallagher of her team’s struggle with jet lag. “We flew in on Tuesday. And the next morning, we were eating at 6:30 in the morning, which is 3:30 our time.”
The Bruins were able to pull out their best performance. Two swimmers, junior Katy Campbell and sophomore Linnea Mack, combined to break four school records during the meet.
In the 500-Yard Freestyle final on Thursday, Campbell swam a 4:40.53, breaking the school record of 4:42.20 held by former Bruin Lauren Baker.
“The 500 has always been one of my favorite races,” Campbell said. “It’s always such an amazing experience to break a school record, especially at UCLA, which is such a prestigious school.”
The other three new school records were all set by Mack. She improved on her own school records in the 50-Yard Freestyle and the 100-Yard Backstroke races with a 22.03 and a 51.98 respectively. On the last day of the meet, Mack went on to set a new school record in the 100-Yard Freestyle with a time of 48.46.
Mack said confidence was key to her achievements in the national meet.
“My race plan is not worrying about what other people do,” Mack said. “So I just went to the race really confident and did exactly what I was practicing.”
Mack scored a total of 65 points over the four-day meet, placing fourth in the individual rankings.
The Bruin divers were claiming victory from Athens, Ga. at the same time. Freshman Maria Polyakova secured the fifth win of her debut UCLA season in the 3-Meter event on Friday, setting a new school record score of 361.60.
On Saturday, sophomore Annika Lenz finished second place in the 1-Meter event, improving her career-best to a total of 288.70. After the invitational, Lenz will start her journey to the 2014 USA Diving Winter National Championships in Columbus, Ohio, while the rest of her teammates travel back to Westwood.