The UCLA women’s swimming and diving team achieved a sweep at the Bruin quad meet held on Saturday in Los Angeles. The Bruins secured victories over Utah with a score of 164-75, Iowa at 159-80, and UC Santa Barbara at 160-79.
Saturday’s competition included two events, the 50 freestyle and the 100 individual medley, both conducted in a skin-style format. In this setup, eight swimmers competed in each event’s first round, with the top six advancing to the next round. The field was then narrowed to four for the third round and finally to two athletes who raced for the win.
The Bruins began the meet by winning the 200 medley relay. Team members Alexis Schaffer, Claudia Yovanovich, Anna Wetteland, and Sarah Bennetts finished with a combined time of 1:32.37.
Freshman Jada Duncan contributed significantly by winning the 50 butterfly in 24.67 seconds, placing second in the 50 backstroke with a time of 26.25 seconds, and helping her relay team secure first place in the medley relay.
Rosie Murphy participated in four events during the meet and won two of them. She took first place in the 150 backstroke with a time of 1:25.67 and later won the final heat of the 100 individual medley against teammate Bennetts with a time of 56.28 seconds.
Sarah Bennetts also claimed victory in the 150-yard breaststroke by finishing in 1:38.74—she was the only swimmer to complete that event under one minute and forty seconds.
In distance races, freshman Applejean Gwinn led UCLA by winning both the 800 freestyle (8:11.77) and the 300 individual medley (3:13.73).
During day two of the Bruin Diving Invitational, juniors Molly Brascia and Eden Cheng reached the finals session of the three-meter diving competition after placing sixth and seventh respectively in preliminaries. In finals, Cheng finished first overall with a score of 326.40—her total for both sessions was 602.60 points—which marked her highest score on three-meter this season for UCLA divers. Brascia improved her standing as well, ending up second overall with a total score of 580.80.
UCLA is scheduled to continue competition tomorrow morning with day three of action at Spieker Aquatics Center starting at 10:30 am Pacific Time.
