LOS ANGELES – As has been the case for the past few years, the UCLA women’s swimming and diving team came prepared to today’s dual meet against Pac 12 rival Arizona. The Bruins gave the Wildcats some pretty close races, and kept the meet close with plenty of lower-place finishes to showcase their depth.
Arizona took the victory with a score of 155-145. For both teams, this was the first meet in a two-day affair that will have Arizona racing Southern California tomorrow and UCLA taking on Arizona State Saturday.
The meet started with a very exciting matchup in the 400 medley relay. Arizona got a comfortable lead thanks to Bonnie Brandon’s 54.71 backstroke leg, but UCLA’s Allison Wine closed the gap a bit with a 1:02.76 breaststroke to Sara Borendame’s 1:03.16. UCLA went into the freestyle leg with a lead of .02 after a 54.34 from Noelle Tarazona to create an epic battle on freestyle. Taylor Schick got the better of Linnea Mack to give the Wildcats a narrow victory, 3:41.85 to 3:41.86.
Arizona responded to the close victory with decisive wins from Tjasa Oder in the 1000 free (9:47.39) and Schick in the 200 free (1:48.94). Brandon almost equaled her relay leadoff in winning the 100 back with a 54.72, while Madison White matched her leadoff for UCLA’s medley relay with a 55.26.
Emma Schoettmer put away Wine in the 100 breast, 1:02.12 to 1:02.62, but Elizabeth Pepper had a harder time winning the 200 fly. Tarazona had a decent lead after 150 yards, but couldn’t seal the deal. Pepper took the race for the Wildcats, 1:59.79 to 1:59.87.
Linnea Mack got her revenge on Schick for the relay victory, winning the 50 free in 23.15 to Schick’s 23.28. But Mack was no match for Brandon, who won the 100 free by .16 with a 50.32.
With Brandon out of her specialty event, the 200 back, that paved the way for White to take the win there comfortably with a 1:58.98. Schoettmer also was able to cruise to a win in the 200 breast for Arizona with a 2:15.45.
UCLA got back into the win column with a 4:46.76 by 1500 free national champion Katy Campbell, an event which saw the Bruins place first, third and fourth to try and keep the score tally interesting. Another big event for UCLA came in the 100 fly, where Katie Kinnear led a 1-2-4 charge against Arizona with a winning time of 54.95 over the 55.14 by teammate Katie Grover.
Going into the final two events, Arizona led by 12 points, giving UCLA hopes for a meet victory. Arizona dashed those hopes in the 200 IM as Alexandra Martelle got the win with a 2:04.51, part of the Wildcats’ 13 points in the event to UCLA’s 6.
Though the meet victory had been decided, UCLA still put up a fight and won the 200 freestyle relay with a 1:32.47 to Arizona’s 1:32.73.
Full results available on Meet Mobile