CHRIS BACKLEY/Daily Bruin Tamara Bal
competes in the 200-meter backstroke in a meet against Washington
State earlier this season.
By Oshin Aivazian
Daily Bruin Contributor
The battle of California swimming and diving supremacy begins
this weekend, as UCLA welcomes Stanford and California.
Both visitors are among the nation’s best swimming
programs and will be competing against the Bruins for the first
time this season.
With the NCAA tournament two months away, the meets this weekend
bear great importance for the Bruins.
“Our goal is to do well in the NCAA tournament, however we
must do well in these following weekends so that we can enter
strong,” assistant swimming coach Greg Meehan said.
The strength of the Bruins is apparent in their domination of
the freestyle events, in which they feel they can out-compete
Stanford and California.
With all the time spent conditioning in the pool and on the
track, the Bruins are sure not to let these two teams spoil their
successful season.
“We’re quick and practice has made us quicker
“¦ We can touch that wall so fast,” said Katie
Younglove, a senior freestyle swimmer.
Diving will be equally intense this weekend, as the UCLA diving
team returns from a fairly solid performance in the Bruin
Invitational.
The Bruins have had time to heal the injuries that kept them
from performing at top caliber in the meet two weeks ago.
“We’re considerably healthy and getting back to
where we should be at this point in the season,” diving coach
Tom Stebbins said.
Many Bruin divers have already qualified for the NCAA Zone, the
stage of competition preceding the NCAA Tournament, and are poised
to take on Stanford and California, whom they expect to meet in
post-season competition.
“We’ve developed a lot physically and know a lot
about our opponents, all we can do now is win,” Stebbins
said.