Junior swimmer Linnea Mack leads UCLA to fifth place finish at Pac-12s

When UCLA swimming and diving competed in the Pac-12 championships last week, the athletes were not the only Bruins working hard.

They were joined by the school’s record keepers who had to go back in the record book and seemingly update it every time junior swimmer Linnea Mack dove into the pool.

Mack was one of the major catalysts behind a fifth-place finish for UCLA as the team consistently chased national powerhouses USC, Stanford and Cal. Over the course of the competition, Mack competed in six unique events and finished no lower than sixth in any of them.

The junior swam in three relay events: the 200-meter medley relay, the 200 freestyle relay and the 400 medley relay, in which the Bruins were remarkably consistent as they finished in fifth in each of the three events.

Mack also swam in three individual events: the 50 freestyle, the 100 backstroke and the 100 freestyle, in which she finished fourth, sixth and fifth respectively.

“For me, mentally preparing for the races is relatively the same because most of my distances are pretty short,” Mack said. “I try to keep my routine the same, and I warm-up the same way. … I’m starting to realize I only have so many of these meets left, so I try and enjoy myself.”

Starting from early on in the competition, Mack was all business as she set a season-best time in her second event, the 50 free, when she registered a blistering 22.06, which fell just shy of breaking her personal best. The 100 backstroke was not able to escape unscathed, however, as she set a season-best time in the preliminary heat before shaving .33 seconds off in the final, swimming a career-best 51.81.

With season- and career-bests already in the bag, Mack set her eyes on the next big goal: school records. The very next time she competed after her 100 backstroke performance was in the 400 medley relay in which she swam a 51.37 during the backstroke leg besting the record she had just set earlier in the day and in the process setting a UCLA record. Following this performance, the 100 freestyle saw Mack set another career-best when she touched the wall at 48.17.

“The times that I posted were from about a year and a half ago and I’ve been training under that pace for almost a year now,” Mack said. “So, I wasn’t going into my races thinking about time, but rather going into it knowing that I could swim at that pace.”

Not to be outdone by their swimming counterparts, the UCLA divers put on an impressive display at the Pac-12 championships as well. The dive team got the Bruins off to a fast start as they helped UCLA accrue a lead at the conclusion of day one on the backs of strong performances by sophomore diver Maria Polyakova and freshman diver Éloïse Bélanger.

“There are so many great things to reflect upon from the Pac-12s, but I think one of the biggest ones is Maria (Polyakova) finding a way to win the 1-meter which is our first diving title since 2008,” said Tom Stebbins, UCLA’s diving coach. “More importantly, for her and for Annika (Lenz), I feel like there are just starting to get into form. I thought all the divers managed the schedule really well, and in particular those two.”

The duo helped the Bruins represent well on the podium as they finished first and third, respectively, in the 1-meter championship. Bélanger set the pace in the 1-meter as she was one of only two participants to top the 300-point mark in the preliminary diving rounds. Polyakova responded to the challenge by posting a season-best score of 324.80 in the finals.

Bélanger was able to carry the momentum from the 1-meter into the 3-meter and platform events as she secured top-five finishes in both, placing fourth and second, respectively. Joining her was junior diver Annika Lenz who was remarkably consistent over the course of the Pac-12 championships. Lenz qualified for the championship rounds in all three diving events, securing a top-five finish in the platform after narrowly missing out in the 1-meter and 3-meter.

“Overall, I’m happy with my performance because this is the first time that I made finals in all of my competitions,” Lenz said. “I think I did pretty good in the 1-meter, and I don’t think that I could be that much better, but in 3-meter and platform, I made some pretty big misses that I can work on. I feel like there is still a lot of improvement on those (3-meter and platform dives).”

Contributing reports from Brent Troop, Daily Bruin contributor. Email Nainani at [email protected] and Troop at [email protected].