Back in her first days as a walk-on member of UCLA’s swim
team, then-freshman Hayley Hacker set herself a seemingly impossible goal: to make the Maccabiah Games.

After a year of competing in the United States, rising sophomore gymnast Danusia Francis represented her home country, the United Kingdom, last week at the 2013 World University Games in Kazan, Russia.

Despite high hopes and a No. 6 national ranking going into this weekend’s NCAA championships, UCLA women’s rowing wound up placing ninth, one spot worse than last season.

Having competed at the Pac-12 championships two weeks ago, UCLA rowing will be surrounded by familiar faces this weekend when it competes at the NCAA championships, where half of the conference will be in attendance.

After 1,500 meters of UCLA’s final race at the Pac-12 championships last weekend, the varsity eight found itself sandwiched in fourth, one boat length behind third-place Cal and two seconds ahead of fifth-place Stanford.

Two weeks ago, UCLA suffered a close loss to undefeated USC, which the Bruins will try to bounce back from when they compete for the Pac-12 title this weekend.

Last weekend at the Pro Gymnastics Challenge in Pennsylvania, seniors Alyssa Pritchett and Vanessa Zamarripa didn’t know whether they were competing as gymnasts for the last time in their lives or for the very first time as professionals.

Handing her oar off to a teammate, junior Samantha Upton lifted herself out of her boat, over the murky saltwater of Marina del Rey and into the newly vacated seat in the boat floating next to her – in the process sliding past the teammate moving into Upton’s old seat.

Although the Bruins lost their dual with crosstown rival USC on Saturday, they kept their margins tighter than they did a month ago.

Unlike the large regattas that have defined most of the spring, this weekend UCLA women’s rowing will compete against only one team – USC.