UCLA swim and dive splits its year into two distinct seasons. In the fall, the swimmers build up to their best times at the end with the Art Adamson Invitational, while in the winter, they build up to the Pac-12 championship and beyond.

Swimmers may taper toward the end of a season, meaning more rest and less practice to maximize their performance potential.

A meet’s atmosphere may also affect times. For UCLA, its meet against its crosstown rival, USC, usually produces fast times. This year, the Bruins wore technical racing suits against the Trojans, which are typically associated with faster times.

UCLA also wore tech suits at Arizona State, Arizona, the Art Adamson Invitational, the Pac-12 championship and the NCAA championship.

Source: UCLA Athletics. Graphic reporting by Felicia Keller, Assistant Sports Editor. Interactive by Ayushi Kadakia, Data contributor.

100-yard and 200-yard Breaststroke
Sarah Bennetts, Eva Carlson and Ana Jih-Schiff

In the 100-yard breaststroke – for much of the season – the three breaststroke swimmers consistently produced similar times.

Toward the end of the fall season, at the Arizona State dual meet, freshman Sarah Bennetts recorded the fastest time up until that point. That 1:00.09 time marked the fastest the Bruins saw until junior Eva Carlson’s Pac-12 preliminary round performance.

For junior Ana Jih-Schiff, her best 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke times came at the USC dual meet

Carlson emerged as the fastest 100-yard breaststroker at the end of the season, despite spending much of the season with the slowest times out of the three swimmers.

Bennetts had three different meets where she recorded times near her fastest 200-yard breaststroke, with only a .3-second differential across three meets – the Arizona State dual meet, the Art Adamson Invitational and the USC dual meet. At the end of the season – the Pac-12 championship finals – Bennetts dropped three-quarters of a second off her previous best time.

Still, Jih-Schiff recorded the fastest time in the 200-yard breaststroke, nearly a second faster than the next best time of the year, which was her performance at the Arizona State dual meet.

Carlson was the only one of the three to qualify for the NCAA championship.

Source: UCLA Athletics. Graphic reporting by Felicia Keller, Assistant Sports Editor. Interactive by Ayushi Kadakia, Data contributor.

200-yard and 400-yard Individual Medley
Rosie Murphy, Paige MacEachern

Sophomore Rosie Murphy and junior Paige MacEachern led the individual medley events.

The pair remained neck and neck with each other in the events all season long. In their first matchup at the Fresno State Invite, MacEachern out-touched Murphy in the 400-yard IM, with Murphy finishing in second place.

At the Art Adamson Invitational, the two Bruins earned their season-best times at that point of the season. MacEachern notched her first school record of the year in the 400-yard IM at 4:06.15.

While MacEachern often dominated the IM events during the regular season, Murphy closed the gap as the postseason approached.

At the Pac-12 championship, Murphy and MacEachern significantly dropped their times. Both Bruins broke the school record in the 200-yard IM in the preliminary round, with Murphy claiming the record with a 1:55.93.

MacEachern rose to the occasion in the finals, beating Murphy and taking sixth place.

At the national championships, Murphy’s breakout performance showed her strength as an underclassman. Murphy recorded the fastest times of any Bruin in the 200-yard and 400-yard IMs, with a 1:56.32 and a 4:05.01, respectively.

Sophomore Rosie Murphy broke the 200-yard backstroke school record twice this season. Source: UCLA Athletics. Graphic reporting by Felicia Keller, Assistant Sports Editor. Interactive by Ayushi Kadakia, Data contributor.