UCLA Swims Past UC Santa Barbara Behind Sprinting of Claire Grover

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

The UCLA swim and dive team captured a 150-112 win over UC Santa Barbara on Friday afternoon in the first interscholastic dual meet of the 2022-23 season for both teams.

The Bruins (1-0) recorded wins in nine of 14 scheduled events, sweeping both relays and all five individual freestyle events.

UCLA received a number of strong individual contributions over the course of the meet.

Fifth-year Claire Grover won the 50 free and swam the anchor leg of both winning relay teams.

Freshman Ashley Kolessar and sophomore Paige MacEachern both had a first-place and runner-up finish apiece.

Senior Rachel Rhee took first in the 100 free, and was on the winning 200 free relay squad.

Junior Maddie Wright scored in three separate freestyle events, highlighted by a runner-up result in the 100 free, and also was on the winning 200 free relay team.

In addition, freshman distance standouts Beril Bocekler (500 free) and Katrina Bellio (1000 free) each notched event wins.

UCLA started off the meet strong, placing the top two teams in the 400 medley relay, as the quartet of Rosie Murphy-Eva Carlson-Gabby Dang-Grover was able to take first at 3:44.51.

Bellio was able to stretch the Bruins’ lead in the next event, winning the 1000 free by a comfortable margin at 10:06.76. Stephanie Su also scored for UCLA with a fourth-place time of 10:29.37.

The Gauchos (0-1) answered back with wins in the next two events, but UCLA then pulled away with four consecutive victories starting with Ana Jih-Schiff in the 100 breast (1:02.52). MacEachern kept it rolling with a win in the 200 fly (2:01.19), and then UCLA dominated the 50 free with a 1-2-3 finish, as Grover (23.06) was followed by teammates Sophia Kosturos (23.91) and Wright (23.97).

Rhee (50.86) and Wright (52.00) went 1-2 in the 100 free to finish off the Bruins’ winning streak.

The latter part of the meet was highlighted for UCLA by wins for Bocekler in the 500 free (4:57.11) and Kolessar in the 200 IM (2:03.96).

UCLA then capped off the competition with a 1:34.52 in the 200 free relay, over 1.5 seconds faster than the rest of the field.

The Bruins return to competition on Friday, Oct. 28, traveling to Utah for both squads’ Pac-12 opener.

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