Swim and dive find success on the road in weekend competition
Swimming
UCLA 183
Oregon State 78
UCLA 176
Utah 81
By Taylor Aquino
Jan. 17, 2012 1:27 a.m.
Most students spent their three-day weekend catching up on much-needed sleep, while the UCLA swim and dive team caught up with the competition.
The Bruins (4-2, 2-2 Pac-12) finished the weekend with multiple successes on the road.
The swim team traveled to Corvallis, Ore. to face off with Oregon State and Utah, and the dive team traveled to Palo Alto to compete in the Stanford Invitational.
“I think we’re definitely going in the right direction,” diving coach Tom Stebbins said. “As long as we continue to get healthy, we’re going to continue to be pretty tough on people at the end of the season.”
Freshman diver Emma Ivory-Ganja led the diving team throughout the weekend, placing fourth in the three-meter dive on Friday, third in the one-meter on Saturday and first in the platform dive on Sunday.
Ivory-Ganja was awarded the platform title after posting a score of 272.45, 22 points more than the next finisher; however, both Ivory-Ganja and Stebbins were not impressed by her performance.
“I messed up on one dive, but I could still improve my score,” Ivory-Ganja said.
Her coach was just as harsh.
“She made one pretty big mistake,” Stebbins said. “I still think she’s very good up there, but it was not her best at all.”
Junior diver Maggy Boyd and sophomore diver Haley McNamara competed throughout the weekend alongside Ivory-Ganja. However, sophomore diver Paulina Guzman and redshirt sophomore diver Michelle Vale did not compete after Friday to rest their injuries.
“I decided that they wouldn’t dive on Saturday,” Stebbins said. “They looked they were struggling a bit physically.”
The swim team dominated Oregon State and Utah on Saturday, overpowering both teams by nearly 100 points.
“Every time you get up on the block, you’re trying to be better than yourself, better than you were yesterday,” swimming coach Cyndi Gallagher said.
“For the most part we were better, especially accounting for all the traveling we did that day. It was good for us to make some changes and try different things.”
Junior swimmer Laurence Delisle led the team with two event wins in the 200-yard freestyle and the 200-yard backstroke. Senior swimmer Yasi Jahanshahi also won two events, dominating the 100- and 200-yard butterfly races.
Freshman standout Jessica Khojasteh was not set to travel this weekend but had to serve as a substitute for another injured swimmer. Khojasteh swam with the first-place, 200-yard medley relay team.
“She did a really good job of stepping up,” Gallagher said. “It didn’t matter if she was on the travel team or not ““ she was going to swim fast.”
As the dual meet with Stanford and Cal looms ever closer, the swim and dive team will be training together to host both teams on Jan. 27 and 28, respectively.
“It is to our advantage that the teams are close together,” Gallagher said. “We feel like we’re on the right path. We’re coming out of the haze and are getting injury-free. Every day we’re getting a little bit better.”
