Before the trip up north to the Bay Area, swim coach Cyndi Gallagher tried instill a passion in her team she felt was missing in a complacent home loss against Washington.
Gallagher preached John Wooden’s ideal of competitive greatness ““ to do the best when the best is needed. It was fitting, given the fact that the regular season will conclude within weeks.
The Bruins (4-4, 2-4 Pac-10), however, still fell in back-to-back meets, losing to No. 2 Stanford (19-0, 6-0 Pac-10) on Friday and California (4-3, 3-2 Pac-10) on Saturday.
UCLA first faced off against the undefeated Cardinal, who were coming off an emotional come-from-behind victory against Arizona the previous weekend.
However, Stanford would not come slowly out of the gate as they did against Arizona, and sustained their intensity en route to a 166.5-125.5 victory.
“(Stanford) is a contender for the NCAA Championship , there’s no question about that,” Gallagher said.
The Cardinal asserted their dominance by convincingly taking the first two spots in the opening 400 medley relay. The UCLA “A” team finished six seconds behind the winners.
And the wins kept piling up ““ Stanford added eight consecutive event victories ““ until senior Madeleine Stanton came through with a victory in the 200 backstroke, finishing in 1:59.98.
“We wanted to come out with a win,” Gallagher said. “She was the one who decided to do it.”
After a subpar, complacent performance in the 200 against Washington, Stanton gutted out an important victory and displayed the competitive greatness that Gallagher emphasized days earlier.
“We swam with more confidence,” Stanton said. “We still are going to work (between now and the USC meet), but we are going to have that same mentality where we have to capitalize on every opportunity we have.”
Stanton also came in second in the 100 back with a time of 55.83.
“We’re just trying to do our best right now,” Gallagher said. “I always think that they can swim better and that we can win, but that’s just not where we are right now.”
Meanwhile, sophomores Brittany Beauchan and Lauren Hall both finished second in the 100 and 200 breast, respectively. Senior Marisa Samaniego led the Bruin divers with strong scores in both the 1M and 3M of 272.18 and 285.30 respectively. Yet the high scores were only good enough for third-place finishes against Stanford, who saw their top two divers edge out Samaniego and her teammates with scores that tapped into the 300 range.
Against Cal, Hall led UCLA to two victories in the 200 breast (2:18.73) and the 400 IM (4:19.47), but the Bears still managed a comfortable victory, defeating the Bruins 172-123.
Sophomore Sam Vanden Berge cruised easily to a victory in the 1650 free, while Stanton took the 100 back.
Diving-wise, freshman Alyssa Robinson secured a victory on the 3M after scoring a season-best 276.98. Samaniego won the 1M with a score of 261.07.
The Bruins will have a two-week gap before heading to USC for the final dual meet of the season on Feb. 13.
“We need to take every practice as if it were the last practice,” Gallagher said. “We need to take advantage of every opportunity we have.”