UCLA swimming and diving travel east to compete at invitationals
No. 22 UCLA has two swimmers seeded in the top eight of the 100-yard backstroke in the Texas Invitational. Seniors Linnea Mack and Madison White are entered with the first- and eighth-fastest times, respectively. (Rohan Kumar/Daily Bruin)
By Gwyneth Teo
Dec. 1, 2016 12:16 a.m.
Two big meets await the No. 22 Bruins, with more chances for the athletes to qualify for NCAAs.
The swimming and diving teams will travel across the country to compete in the Texas Invitational and the University of Georgia Fall Invitational, respectively. The former runs Thursday to Saturday, while the latter will be held Friday to Saturday.
Diving coach Tom Stebbins appeared prepared for a taxing trip ahead.
“We’re not making it easy,” Stebbins said. “We’re red-eyeing out on Wednesday so we don’t have to pay for a hotel room on Wednesday night. But that’s just part of the deal.”
The previous time the diving team competed at the fall invitational in Athens, Georgia, junior Maria Polyakova set a new school record with a total of 361.60 to win the 3-meter finals by nearly 30 points.
Stebbins believes that this out-of-state meet will be important to the team.
“I think that when you have to travel across the country, you kind of learn a little bit about how it’s going to be at the end of the year,” Stebbins said. “We have to be prepared for the East Coast time.”
For the Texas swimming invitational, the other participating teams include No. 3 Texas, No. 8 USC and No. 13 Wisconsin. Texas has a 7-1 record this season, its only loss coming against No.1 Stanford. The reigning Pac-12 champion, USC, is unbeaten this season thus far, while the Wisconsin squad boasts the likes of Olympic gold medalist and sophomore Cierra Runge and freshman Beata Nelson, who was ranked the No. 2 recruit in the nation by SwimSwam.
“It’s always fun racing better, different competition,” said swimming coach Cyndi Gallagher. “Texas, Harvard and Wisconsin – these are the people we don’t normally see.”
The 100-yard backstroke is slated to be a tough contest. The top eight seeds include the host school’s senior Tasija Karosas, an NCAA All-American, and four Trojans including freshman Louise Hansson, who is making her NCAA invite debut but has already notched a time of 52.35 seconds in her first-ever yards season. UCLA seniors Madison White and Linnea Mack bookend the top eight, with the latter being the top seed.
Seeded fourth and eighth in the 200- and 100-yard backstroke events respectively, White expressed her excitement for the challenge ahead.
“This meet is super fun because it’s not just the Pac-12 that gets to go, so there’s a bunch of other teams we wouldn’t usually swim against until NCAAs,” White said. “So to just swim with them now, it’s just getting used to the competition.”
Mack is also seeded second in the 50-yard freestyle and third in the 100-yard freestyle, while junior Katie Grover is seeded first in the 100-yard butterfly and second in the 200-yard butterfly. Last year, Grover qualified for NCAAs at the Texas Invitational after achieving the team’s only first-place finish in the 200-butterfly with a personal-best time of 155.45 – the fourth fastest time in UCLA history.
Gallagher expects the swimmers’ times to improve given that they just returned from Thanksgiving break.
“They are getting a little rest so they should be faster,” Gallagher said. “We hope to get some NCAA qualifying times. Some kids are close, we’ve been fast in this meet before.”
