UCLA swimming will be split in dual meet, aims to improve speed
Sandra Soe is one of three Bruins competing at the USA Swimming College Challenge this weekend. The junior finished fourth in the A final of the 500-yard freestyle and was the anchor of the 800-yard freestyle relay at the SMU Classic last weekend. (Daily Bruin file photo)
By Kelsey Angus
Oct. 20, 2017 1:37 a.m.
It’s UCLA swim and dive’s second week of competition, and again the team will be split between two meets.
The No. 21 Bruins (1-0) will send three swimmers to compete on behalf of the Pac-12 at the USA Swimming College Challenge at USC and the remainder of the swimming team will travel to UC Santa Barbara for a dual meet.
The team opened the season with a dual-meet win at San Diego and a fourth-place finish at the SMU Classic last weekend.
“We had a positive atmosphere and energy and everyone was enthusiastic and having a positive attitude really helped everyone’s performance,” said associate head coach Naya Higashijima. “It was the first meet to see where we are on our technique and racing strategies, so that was a good checkpoint.”
Senior Maddy Burnham said the meet at San Diego showed that the team has a lot of corrections to make.
“(Coach) Cyndi (Gallagher) overall saw last weekend that we needed to work on our back half, so we’ve been doing that a lot in practice,” Burnham said.
Higashijima said a major focus has been working on maintaining speed off the wall by improving underwater technique.
“We’ve been working on breakouts where you try to maintain the speed that you create from your dive or push off the wall after a turn,” Higashijima said. “So getting those things improved while we’re fatigued and broken down from training will be a good testament to our program and how everyone is adjusting.”
Senior Katie Grover, junior Sandra Soe and sophomore Kenisha Liu will be competing for the Pac-12 at the USA Swimming College Challenge, which is a competition between the Pac-12 and Team USA.
“Now we have another week of training under our belts and it’s exciting to see how fast we can go and to compete against some of the best swimmers in the country,” Soe said.
Soe said that the team’s training mindset doesn’t change even though the team will again be split across two meets.
“I don’t think we really notice it because we all motivate each other really well and it doesn’t matter what meet you’re going to,” Soe said. “Everyone’s going to compete and compete the best they can, and we’re still representing UCLA wherever we are.”
Although the team won’t all be together for competition, Burnham said those competing in Santa Barbara will still get to stop by the USA Swimming College Challenge at USC to support Grover, Soe and Liu.
