UCLA
Oregon State
UCLA Overwhelms Oregon State on Senior Day, 160-93
January 19, 2019 | Swimming & Diving
LOS ANGELES โ The UCLA swim team moved its record to 8-0 on the year after overwhelming Oregon State 160-93 on Saturday at Spieker Aquatics Center.
A Bruin individual or relay team had the best time in all 14 scheduled events, and several UCLA swimmers notched best times despite the team having swum in three dual or double-dual meets in the last 12 days.
Before Saturday's contest, UCLA's eight senior swimmers and divers were honored in a pre-meet ceremony. Several of those seniors, such as distance freestyler Sandra Soe, breast/backstroker Emma Schanz, and breastroker Elena Escalas, had standout days in the pool.
"Well I'm really proud of the seniors," said UCLA head swim & dive coach Cyndi Gallagher. "All their families were here and they've kinda been through the ups and downs of four years and the challenges of swimming. They've all done a great job of leading, so I'm really proud of them, they're the standouts. We had some kids do best times today which is kind of shocking because we're so tired, but really today was for the seniors. The team raised up for the seniors."
The Bruins opened the meet with a first place finish in the 200 free relay, as the UCLA A Team of Jennifer Lathrop, Kenisha Liu, Emily Lo, and Claire Grover finished in 1:42.52.
Next up, Soe won the 1000 free for the third consecutive meet, coming in at 10:02.00. The Bruins also had the second and third-place finishers in Lisa Kaunitz (10:22.71, season-best) and Sophia Cavalli (10:37.49, collegiate debut in the 1000 free).
UCLA went 1-2-3 in the next event as well, the 200 free. Amy Okada pulled away during the second half of the race to grab first with a time of 1:50.13, followed by Olivia Andrew (1:53.53) and Claire Grover (1:54.39).
Schanz earned her first win of the day in the 100 back, just beating out OSU's Felicia Anderson at 54.47. Jennifer Lathrop was the third-place finisher at 55.59.
Three of the next four races saw freshman Bruins pick up their first collegiate event wins.
First, Emma Smethurst eked out a first-place finish in the 100 breast, edging out teammate Jackie Basham by 0.04 seconds. ย
Then, Allison Goldblatt completed the 200 fly in 2:03.08 โ in her collegiate debut in the event, no less โ to take first and nail down her first win.
Finally, Isabella Barattolo won an even closer race to pick up a win in the 100 free, beating Olivia Andrew to the pad by one-hundredth of a second at 52.44. Third-place finisher Lisa Kaunitz touched in 52.47.
UCLA went into the first break on a high note, placing the top-four finishers in the 50 free. Okada was first at 22.82, just missing an NCAA B Cut, while Liu (22.93), and Emily Lo (23.28) were hot on her heels. Ella Kirschke swam a 23.76 in the second heat to take fourth.
Emma Schanz logged a season-best 1:58.13 to win the 200 back, the second-best time by a Bruin in that event this season.
Liu started a torrid second-half of the meet โ she was the winning individual or relay team in three of the final five events โ by taking the 200 breast with a time of 2:14.47. Once again UCLA had the top-three finishers, as Liu was followed by Delaney Smith (2:18.21) and Jackie Basham (2:20.38).
Soe took home another individual win in the 500 free, breaking the five-minute mark for the sixth time this year at 4:55.81. Making her collegiate distance debut, Kirschke was second at 5:00.24.
The Bruins began to log exhibition swims for the final three events. Emily Lo had the team's best time in the 100 fly at 55.10, while Liu swam an NCAA B-Cut time of 1:59.79 in the 200 IM. The afternoon was capped off with the 400 free relay, with the UCLA D Team (Erica Vong, Okada, Kaunitz, Liu) recording the top time at 3:26.18.
The swim team is next in action on Feb. 1 at Stanford and on Feb. 2 at Cal. UCLA's divers remain in action this weekend, hosting the Bruin Diving Invitational which began Friday and runs through Sunday.
Players Mentioned
