UCLA swim and dive to face different teams, different challenges

This weekend takes UCLA swim to an away dual meet against Oregon State, a match in which the Bruins are the heavy favorites, while UCLA dive stays home to host the Bruin Invitational.

Freshman swimmer Sarah Kaunitz said she doesn’t see OSU as a team that poses much of a threat to UCLA, despite the fact that the meet will be her “first real travel meet.”

“I’m not sure because I’ve never competed against them … but I don’t think they are one of the best,” Kaunitz said. “I don’t think it’ll be too hard.”

As a native of the state of Oregon, Kaunitz has experience in the pool that the team will be competing in on Friday and doesn’t anticipate the away field disadvantage either.

She does, however, recognize that the Bruins do have a number of things to work on regardless of logistics and whether or not OSU turns out to be a strong opponent.

“I personally think … (people) are going to focus on turns and starts and breakouts – underwater kicks we’ve been working a lot on,” Kaunitz said. “Little details that in the end will have a big effect.”

Kaunitz considers the upcoming meet a low-stress competition that will act as a segue to bigger meets later on.

“Especially because we have Stanford, Cal, and USC coming up soon this is a good entry to the big races,” she said.

Dive welcomes tough rivals

This will be freshman diver Ciara Monahan’s first time competing at the Bruin Invitational, but she’s spent the past couple of years watching her sister Montana Monahan, a junior and team captain, dive at the meet.

“I was so jealous because I wanted to participate as well but now this year I’ll finally be able to and I’m really excited,” Monahan said.

Monahan expressed relief at having the home field advantage this weekend, something that’s especially crucial for divers.

“(In an away meet) the boards may feel different … and spotting might be different,” she said. “(At home) we have trees to look at while we dive, but sometimes it’s just sky.”

Visual spotting is a technique that divers use to reference what they should be able to see at various points during the twisting and turning in their dive.

While there will be many schools at the meet, sophomore diver Annika Lenz looks forward to competing against USC and Cal in particular.

“They’re probably some of the best teams that are coming to us … they’re just good competition to have,” Lenz said.

Lenz, who competed in the Bruin Invitational last year, recalls getting distracted by the scores of her dives and hopes to be more forward thinking this year.

“(Last year), let’s say I did a bad dive – I was mad and not focusing on the next one,” Lenz said. “I just need to focus on one dive at a time and not get too caught up in what scores I’m getting.”

As a whole, UCLA dive has its eye on the USC and Cal teams this weekend and expects the meets to better prepare it for bigger events at the end of the season.