The wind was blowing, the rain was pouring down and the UCLA swimming and diving team was in the midst of one of its toughest practices of the season on Monday.
“I’m retiring from swimming,” one swimmer said jokingly at the conclusion of her final set.
The 20 swimmers and four divers traveling to Tucson and Tempe, Arizona, will try to carry over the intensity into their first conference meets this weekend. No. 16 UCLA will face No. 18 Arizona on Friday and unranked Arizona State on Saturday.
“It’s the first conference opportunity for us,” said diving coach Tom Stebbins. “Everybody (in the Pac-12) has a really good team. You’re going up against quality opponents each time you face someone in the conference. For us, (this) will be a good first measuring stick.”
With successful showings at the SMU Classic on Oct. 16 and at the University of San Diego on Oct. 17, the diving team will have a chance to make an impression on the Pac-12 this weekend. Two of the divers traveling to the meet, sophomore Maria Polyakova and junior Annika Lenz, placed in the top 10 in numerous events at the Pac-12 championship last year, including Polyakova’s fourth-place finish in both the 1-meter and 3-meter dive and Lenz’s third place finish in the women’s platform dive.
“For the last couple of years, (Arizona) has had the best diver in the conference (with Samantha Pickens),” Stebbins said. “She won NCAA’s on 1-meter a couple of times in a row. She’s finally retired, thankfully.”
Arizona State also lost its best diver this past season in Hailey Casper, who finished in the top three in the 1-meter and 3-meter dives at last year’s Pac-12 championship.
The Bruins will still face stiff competition in the Wildcats and Sun Devils, though, as two of Arizona’s top-three divers will be returning this season and Arizona State has sophomore Mara Aiacoboae. As a freshman, Aiacoboae placed in the top seven in the 1-meter, 3-meter and platform dive at the conference championships.
Between the lanes, swimming coach Cyndi Gallagher is excited to see how her team can improve from the past few meets and how well it stacks up against some of the best teams in the nation.
“I didn’t think we did a particularly good job against Santa Barbara, I thought (we) could’ve been better, so I’m looking for the intensity to be up a bit higher,” Gallagher said. “It’s Arizona, so (we know) they’re going to be ready for us.”
Among the 20 swimmers going to the meet this weekend is freshman Caroline McTaggart, who spoke highly of her coaches’ ability to prepare the team, especially the freshmen, for the toughness of a college meet.
“It’s been an interesting transition,” McTaggart said. “Before we got started (at practice) today, we worked on our mental training, which gives us the skills to be able to handle a tough practice like today. We work through everything as a team.”
Over the past three seasons, the UCLA swimming and diving team has had immense success against Arizona State, beating them by at least 45 points at each meet. This same success hasn’t translated to Arizona, though, as the Bruins have narrowly lost to Wildcats by a combined 12 points over the past two seasons.
“It’s still so early in the season that you want to get a great experience,” said Stebbins. “You want to race or dive at the best of your ability for this time of the year and you hope you can build up on top of it. We’ve been a little short the last couple of years but hopefully we’ll cross that line.”