When senior breaststroke swimmer Nicolette Teo got out of the pool after her morning preliminary race, she had no idea that she had done something special.
“We were just talking about the race, and then I went into my warm-down,” Teo said. “Then midway through my warm-down I was like, “˜Wait, I kind of think that was my best time.'”
As it turned out, Teo had indeed recorded a lifetime-best time of 1:01.57 seconds in the 100-yard breaststroke, good enough to break the NCAA A-standard, which automatically qualifies her for the NCAA Championships in March. Typically, not many collegiate swimmers in the nation break the A-time prior to the NCAAs.
“I was really excited to get my A-time,” Teo said. “It is my lifetime best, and I didn’t even know it. In all three years I’ve gone to NCAAs, I’ve always just gotten the B-cut. It’s nice to get it taken care of.”
Teo’s solid swim highlighted a successful weekend for the No. 14 UCLA women’s swim and dive team (5-1, 1-1 Pac-10). The swim team won the Nike Cup in Long Beach by more than 600 points over second-place Brigham Young, while the dive team’s Marisa Samaniego and Tess Schofield notched wins in the 3-meter and platform competitions at the Hoosierland Invitational in Bloomington, Ind.
“I think overall as a team we did a really good job,” swim coach Cyndi Gallagher said. “It surprised me a little bit. I think they just kind of decided they were going to swim fast at this meet. They were not rested for it, so they swam fast tired. Everyone had at least one good swim.”
Dive coach Tom Stebbins said he was most impressed with how his divers responded to competition shortly after a long travel day. The team did not check into their hotel until 4 a.m. the day before competition started, but that did not prevent them from practicing that afternoon or competing early the following morning in the 1-meter.
The team ended up placing four divers in the top eight that day, with Samaniego leading the way, notching a second-place finish.
“I see a lot of the pieces that we spent a lot of time on this fall trying to build, starting to kind of take root,” Stebbins said. “I still think we can be better at making decisions in the moment in terms of our overall performance, but I think we have a lot of time to work on those things. I’m encouraged by the smaller pieces of the puzzle that are starting to kind of really look good.”
In addition to the strong performances from Teo, Samaniego and Schofield, Emily Bibb, Anna Poteete, Alex Sullivan and Isabell Fischer all posted NCAA consideration times over the weekend. Poteete won the 100 free with a time of 50.40, while Fischer won the 200 backstroke with a time of 2:02.00.
Bruin relay teams also performed well with wins in the 200 free relay, the 200 medley relay, the 400 free relay and the 800 free relay.
On the dive side, Brittany Hill shattered her previous lifetime best on the 1-meter with a score of 250.65 that earned her fourth place. Juniors Shannon Pirozzi and Schofield both also posted personal bests on the 1-meter. Freshman Morgan Erpenbeck recorded season-best scores in the 3-meter and platform.
Despite the strong performances, Gallagher isn’t going to let her team celebrate the weekend’s success for long.
“We pat ourselves on the back and get ready to get focused for Monday morning,” she said.