UCLA
Washington State
UCLA Downs WSU, 153-109, in First Dual of Season
October 13, 2023 | Swimming & Diving
PULLMAN, Wash. โ The UCLA swim and dive team logged a 153-109 win over Washington State on Friday evening in the team's first dual meet of the 2023-24 season.
The Bruins (1-0, 1-0 Pac-12) won eight of 14 events overall, and had four of the top-five individual scorers at the meet.
A trio of Bruins notched doubles on Friday. Junior Ana Jih-Schiff swept the breaststroke events, graduate Aislinn Walsh followed by sweeping the butterfly, and sophomore Rosie Murphy recorded wins in the 200 back and 400 IM.
Sophomore Ashley Kolessar (1000 free) rounded out the Bruins' individual winners. Graduate Brooke Schaffer placed runner-up in the 50 free, 100 free, and 200 free.
UCLA opened the meet with a narrow win in the 200 medley relay, going 1:42.88 to beat out WSU's top quartet by a quarter-second.
Kolessar (10:09.17) followed up with a win in the 1000 free, the first time UCLA had swum that event this season.
The Bruins would place the runner-up in each of the two races: Schaffer in the 200 free (1:50.58) and freshman Amy Zhang in the 100 back (56.11).
Jih-Schiff got UCLA back in the win column with a 1:02.91 in the 100 breast. Junior Eva Carlson (1:03.85) and freshman Sarah Bennetts (1:03.92) placed 3-4 to score for UCLA.
UCLA then dominated the 100 fly, with Walsh (2:02.30) leading a 1-2-3 finish. She was followed by senior Crystal Murphy (2:05.59) and sophomore Fay Lustria (2:05.73).
Schaffer finished second in the 50 free (23.67) and 100 free (51.43) to lead the Bruins in each of the first two events of the second half of the meet.
Murphy broke a two-event winning streak for the Cougars (0-1) with a 1:59.66 in the 200 back, making her the only swimmer in the field to break two minutes.
Jih-Schiff then completed her double with a 2:15.72 in the 200 breast, beating out the field by 2.5 seconds.
Kolessar posted a time of 4:59.16 in the 500 free to finish runner-up, narrowly missing out on a sweep of the distance events.
UCLA came back with another dominant showing in the 100 fly, placing each of the top-four finishers. Walsh (54.74) paced the field for her second win, with junior Joanie Cash (55.64) hot on her heels.
The Bruins finished off the individual races with a 1-2-3 result in the 400 IM. Murphy's time (4:24.46) was over five seconds better than the field.
The meet came to a close with WSU winning the 400 free relay at 3:24.62, ahead of UCLA's 3:26.40.
Washington State's Madison Parker finished as the meet's top individual scorer at 27 points.
The Bruins are at home for their next two dual meets, starting on Friday, Oct. 20 at 3:30 p.m. PT against UC Santa Barbara.
Players Mentioned
