UCLA swim and dive defeats Washington State in 1st Pac-12 meet of season

The Bruins finished 2021 perfect at home.

UCLA swim and dive (2-0, 1-0 Pac-12) opened its conference schedule with a 169-91 win over Washington State (2-3, 1-3) at Spieker Aquatics Center on Saturday, winning 11 of 14 swimming events in its final home meet of the calendar year. The Bruin divers have yet to compete this season.

Coach Jordan Wolfrum – who holds a winning percentage over .700 in dual meets during her time in Westwood – said she was proud of the way her team has continued to improve from week to week.

“Overall, with the meet, I’m really pleased,” Wolfrum said. “We were faster than we were last week, and there we were faster than the week before. They lifted this morning before we came over and raced, and they stepped up. This was a meet that our team was really excited about. They stepped up and executed at a really high level.”

Several Bruins tallied their first career event wins Saturday, including sophomore swimmer Bailey Herbert, who earned her first victory in the 200-yard breaststroke. Freshman swimmer Paige MacEachern also claimed her first win in the 200-yard butterfly and later became the first Bruin on the team to earn two event wins in a single meet with a first-place finish in the 500-yard freestyle.

MacEachern said her wins this week only make her want to work harder moving forward.

“Winning is always great,” MacEachern said. “The thing we needed to do was to beat the person next to us, and that’s what we did. But just because you won an event this week doesn’t mean you’re going to win it next week, so you have got to fight even more next weekend.”

Freshman swimmers Mia Chang and Eva Carlson earned their second event wins of their career in the 100-yard backstroke and 100-yard breaststroke, respectively, after claiming their first wins a week prior against UC Santa Barbara.

Junior swimmer Brooke Schaffer and senior swimmer Abriana Howard also earned a second consecutive weekend win in the 100-yard freestyle and 200-yard backstroke, respectively. UCLA claimed the top three spots in the 100-yard individual medley as junior swimmer Sophia Kosturos attained the 14th individual event win of her career.

Wolfrum said each swimmer staying on top of their own events is a cornerstone of the program.

“’Know the plan and do your job’ – that’s one of the short statements that is built in as part of our culture, and that is exactly what they did,” Wolfrum said.

The Bruins opened and closed the meet with relay wins, finishing nearly nine seconds ahead in the 400-yard medley relay before closing the afternoon with a 200-yard freestyle relay victory.

Junior swimmer Gabby Dang was first to the finish line in the 100-yard butterfly, and she said she’ll use the win as something to grow from.

“(Winning) just sets you up for the next day,” Dang said. “It’s really nice to have a win, but at the same time, it’s like a learning experience. It’s just another chance to try out your racing strategy and see what you can fix and see what you like.”

After toppling its first two dual meet opponents, UCLA will travel to Arizona to face No. 22 Arizona State on Friday before its quickest turnaround of the season with a meet against Arizona on Saturday.

Wolfrum said she was happy with her program’s start to the season and confirmed the team’s divers will compete for the first time next week.

“This is a really good start,” Wolfrum said. “We will put in another week of really hard work before we get on the road and travel. But we’re going to have to step up to compete with both Arizona State and Arizona; they’ve been swimming and diving really well.”