UCLA swim and dive face tests brought on by a rash of injuries, big meets against Cal and Stanford

Swim has hit a few walls lately, but as always, the team intends to flip-turn right off and keep looking forward.

Impacted by injuries and the stress of big upcoming meets and midterms, the No. 12 UCLA team has been forced to work to maintain its focus.

“You have to be able to turn off your school brain and turn on your swim brain,” senior Andrea Reigel said.

Focusing on swim has become even more challenging in light of several recent injuries on the team.

“We’re a little distracted because we’ve had some weird stuff happen. I think there’s (been) a change of perspective,” coach Cyndi Gallagher said.

A major change in perspective came about after the injury to top backstroker Laurence Delisle. The senior recently suffered a fall that broke her shoulder and may end her collegiate swimming career.

In response to these sudden changes, however, the team is counting on its younger members to fill in the gaps.

“We’ve just got hit, boom, boom, and so we’re just kind of asking other people to step up. We’ll … see what we’re made of,” Gallagher said.

The Bruins will have an opportunity to do just that this weekend with meets against No. 3 Cal and No. 8 Stanford.

Amidst all the other changes on the team, the girls have also faced slightly modified practices that place emphasis on race strategy.

“(We’ve) been doing some broken swims and pacing, which we haven’t done as much … (and) getting … into the speed of what we should be swimming,” Reigel said.

If anything, though, the swimmers said the turn of events has  inspired them to stay confident.

“Watching someone who was doing so well unfortunately have their season cut short makes everyone realize how much we love the sport, how much we want to go and we want to race and we want to be the best that we can be,” junior Lauren Baker said.