UCLA swim and dive secures success, earns 1st place at UNLV Invitational
Senior swimmer Ella Kirschke takes a breath during the 200-yard freestyle in UCLA swim and dive’s meet against Washington State on Oct. 30. Kirschke earned a top-place finish in the 400-yard IM in the UNLV Invitational over the weekend. (Sakshi Joglekar/Assistant Photo editor)
By Garrison Hallum
Dec. 21, 2021 2:32 p.m.
The Bruins returned home from the desert victorious.
UCLA swim and dive (2-2, 1-2 Pac-12) traveled to Las Vegas over the weekend to compete in the three-day UNLV Invitational, where the Bruins faced off against four other schools from several conferences. Earning first place in the event, UCLA’s swim squad hauled in a score of 1,322.0 – 266.5 points higher than second-place UNLV.
Coach Jordan Wolfrum said the Bruins showed improvement throughout the weekend.
“I’m really impressed and really proud of our performance over the last three days,” Wolfrum said. “We did a lot of racing and we were even better in a lot of areas than we were a couple weeks ago in Ohio.”
On the first day of the event, UCLA finished at the top of the leaderboards in four of five races, finishing first in every event except for the 500-yard freestyle. Bruins earned a first, second and third-place finish in the 200-yard individual medley, which also featured numerous personal records.
Wolfrum said her team’s performance was even more impressive considering this is a period of the swim season that is physically challenging for her athletes.
“For most of our team, they’re right in the middle of training, (so) they’re very tired,” Wolfrum said. “They’ve had no rest and little preparation, and they raced out of their minds.”
On the second day of the invitational, UCLA earned top finishes in six out of seven events. Senior swimmer Ella Kirschke finished first in the 400-yard IM, while also recording several podium finishes in other events and relays throughout the weekend, including a second place finish in the 200-yard IM.
Kirschke said focusing on her mentality going into races has helped her improve as a competitor.
“Our sport is a very mental sport, and I’ve been really making some adjustments to boost my confidence,” Kirschke said. “I was really happy with how I performed.”
The Bruins received a first-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly from junior swimmer Sophia Kosturos, who finished with a time of 53.73. Kosturos also earned a second-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle on the first day of the invitational.
The junior swimmer said she was happy with her performance and is striving to make it to the NCAA championships at the end of the season.
“I felt pretty pleased with my performance at this meet, especially given that we are in winter training, which is the hardest training of the year,” Kosturos said. “My goals for this season are to have my best times and make it to NCAAs.”
UCLA concluded the second day of the invitational with a score of 909.0, good for 211.5 points higher than the next-best school.
To close out the weekend, the Bruins took top finishes in five of the seven events Sunday. The blue and gold capped off the invitational with a top finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay behind a time of 48.71 from senior swimmer Claire Grover in the anchor leg – the fastest time in the field.
“I’ve been happy from top to bottom with how consistently good we’ve been,” Wolfrum said. “We’ve got the goal of repeating our top-three finish at the Pac-12 championships.”
UCLA will return to competition in the new year when it takes on UC San Diego on Jan. 8.
