UNIVERSITY PARK – Rivals don’t just compete with one another.

They extract every inch of fight out of each other.

No. 22 UCLA swim and dive (3-5) fell to No. 14 USC (3-2) on Friday 215-85 in its final dual meet of the season. Despite the 130-point loss, the Bruins achieved several career – and team – bests.

“It was an objectively big meet for us,” said coach Jordan Cordry. “That’s my overall take.”

The Bruins kicked off the meet with a second-place, 1:36.36 finish in the 200-yard medley relay – tying the school record set last week.

“Our dual meets always start with that (the 200-yard medley relay),” Cordry said. “To have that consistency and confidence always coming from that group – that’s big.”

But the Bruins didn’t stop at tying a school record. Freshman Karolina Piechowicz continued to make waves in her first season, recording the fastest 100-yard breaststroke in UCLA history – for the second week in a row – at 59.28 seconds.

“I felt really good today, but I really wanted to go under 59,” Piechowicz said. “Maybe at championships.”

She added that the team’s senior class has pushed her to success in her first season.

“We race every day at practice together,” she said. “They challenge me, and they’re just like big sisters.”

One of those seniors is Ana Jih-Schiff, who finished the 200-yard breaststroke with a 2:08.23 time to shatter her personal record by over a second. Jih-Schiff, who took second place in the event, said she was surprised by the time she saw on the scoreboard.

“I definitely didn’t know how fast I was going,” Jih-Schiff said. “I was fighting really, really hard and just really wanted to get a big win for the team.”

Jih-Schiff appeared on the podium two other times, contributing to the 200-yard medley relay’s second-place finish and taking fourth in the 100-yard breaststroke.

The Bruins also benefited from the consistency of graduate student Emma Harvey, who took second in four events – the 200-yard medley relay, the 400-yard freestyle relay, the 100-yard backstroke and the 100-yard butterfly.

But despite their historic performances, the Bruins failed to win a single event. Junior Rosie Murphy came close, taking second in the 200-yard backstroke with a 1:55.73 finish, less than seven-tenths of a second behind USC’s Mackenzie Hodges.

Cordry said the meet serves as an annual “checkpoint” for the Bruins going into the postseason, adding that the team’s strong performance should give them confidence moving forward.

“We walk out of here with something like 15 lifetime bests, unrested on a Friday afternoon,” she said. “Let’s get some confidence out of this, and let’s move into the next step.”

Jih-Schiff said the rivalry brought out some of the Bruins’ strongest performances yet.

“It’s extremely exciting to come on enemy territory,” she said. “It brings out the best in us.”

Contributing reports by Willa Campion and Felicia Keller, Daily Bruin staff.