Highlighted by school records and top-three finishes, the Bruins took home fourth in the Pac-12 tournament this week.

For the seniors and the coaching staff, who started together four years ago and have been working hard since, coach Jordan Wolfrum said the results – including seven total podium finishes – were exciting.

“It’s been a long time for us since we’ve had four podium finishes from individuals and a relay podium,” Wolfrum said. “So it’s really cool to watch the girls stand up there and put a trophy in their hand. It doesn’t get much better than that.”

UCLA swim and dive (6-3, 3-3 Pac-12) finished fourth at the Pac-12 championship tournament in Washington. The Bruins broke the 1000-point mark and finished 230 points behind third-place California.

Sophomore swimmer Eva Carlson picked up a sixth-place result in the 200-yard breaststroke final with a personal best time of 2.11.31. In the 100-yard breaststroke, fifth-year swimmer Claire Grover finished third, and Carlson finished fifth. Grover’s time in the 100-yard set a new school standard of 59.37.

Carlson, Grover and senior swimmers Sophia Kosturos and Gabby Dang surpassed the school record in the 200-yard medley relay with a new school best of 1.36.64. They had fallen a quarter of a second behind the record just two weeks ago in the final dual meet of the season.

“It’s exciting to be able to represent the Bruins in that legacy, and I think it’s more of an honor because I know that there have been so many great Bruins who have come before me,” Carlson said. “That always feels great, especially to do it with those three.”

As a sophomore, Carlson said she hopes to score higher in the coming years, but the work she has put in – especially in the 200-yard breaststroke – has paid off.

“I’ve been working on my stroke endurance a lot this year, as well as strength in my stroke,” Carlson said. “It’s always good to get those points for the team and just have fun racing.”

Senior swimmer Rachel Rhee tied for the Bruins’ best individual result with a personal best to take second in the 100-yard freestyle final. She was backed up by Grover, who picked up seventh place. In the 50-yard freestyle, the two reversed order with Grover finishing third and Rhee just shy of the podium at fourth.

Wolfrum said that the two senior swimmers’ dependability this week was a testament to their careers.

With several top-10 finishes secured in the shorter events, swimmers in freshman Katrina Bellio and sophomore Paige MacEachern represented the Bruins in the longer events and came in sixth and seventh in the 1650-yard freestyle.

UCLA also saw improvements in the 400-yard medley, as four swimmers pulled off personal bests, including freshman Rosie Murphy’s eighth-place finish and MacEachern’s runner-up finish in the final.

To advance to the final of the 400-yard medley, MacEachern notched a then-personal best time to take first in the preliminary round. She later improved upon that time to earn a school record of 4.06.17 that had previously gone unchanged for 12 years.

“I look at that record probably every single day,” MacEachern said. “So to see my name on the record was really exciting.”

On the diving side of the tournament, the blue and gold kicked off the meet with a third-place finish right above Stanford in the team event. Furthermore, the 3-meter diving event proved vital for the Bruins with freshman Eden Cheng and senior Hannah Butler finishing fourth and fifth in the finals, respectively.

In the final dive event of the tournament, Cheng pulled off a school record of 324.60 in the platform final to finish third.

Wolfrum said the divers were critical for the scores this weekend as they all competed in every event and pushed outside of the comfort zones of their specializations.

“It’s been a lot of hard work, and diving is a sport where you really demand a lot from your body. It takes quite a beating,” Wolfrum said. “To put together three great events, that makes me really excited for our future and really proud of our divers.”

While most of the UCLA swimmers have now wrapped up their season, the divers will head to the Zone E Diving Championships on March 6th, while a few of the swimmers will head to the NCAA tournament later, starting March 15th.