UCLA swim and dive all set for NCAA championships
By Nathaniel Liebes
March 18, 2014 1:36 a.m.
The UCLA swim and dive team hopes that prior experience in competitive conference swimming will help it when it travels to Minneapolis for the NCAA championships starting Thursday.
The expectations for this meet will be high. According to senior freestyle swimmer Lauren Baker, the team is in a good place heading into the meet.
“We qualified a few people, maybe not as many as we had hoped. I think there’s 10 girls going, but there are a couple of relays that are looking good to score,” Baker said. “We had some people who trained through Pac-12s to get ready for the meet and others who qualified there.”
Prior experience will be crucial for the Bruins heading into this meet. The meet will feature higher levels of competition and a bigger stage for the Bruins. However, according to Baker and sophomore freestyle swimmer Katy Campbell, the Bruins are well prepared.
“I think everyone here has experience going to big meets with USA swimming in the summer, but really it’s the very high-quality competition we are going to face (that will be a challenge),” Baker said.
According to Campbell, the Bruins’ schedule this season has helped them to prepare for the championships.
“The competition is basically the best college swimmers from around the country, but we race them in Pac-12s and a lot of them are from the Pac-12 area so I am trying to treat it like any other meet and do my best and swim my best,” Campbell said.
The Bruins have trained and tapered for this meet and, according to freshman freestyle, backstroke and butterfly swimmer Linnea Mack, the team has the right mindset heading into the NCAA championships.
“We are all tapered for this, and this is our peak meet so that will put us in the right mindset for a meet like this,” Mack said.
The NCAA championships will run from Thursday to Saturday.
Compiled by Nathaniel Liebes, Bruin Sports contributor.
