Swimming in what is often dubbed the “dreaded lane eight,” UCLA senior swimmer Michaela Merlihan pulled away in a close contest to win the 500-yard freestyle, notching a time of 4 minutes, 54.35 seconds.
UCLA had not beaten Arizona since 2012. But Friday, Merlihan was part of a one-two-three finish for the No. 15 Bruins as they went on to defeat the No. 22 Wildcats 155.5-144.5 in a Pac-12 showdown.
“Just going into it, like in the outside lanes, I knew that they wouldn’t be able to see me, so I just went in and swam my own race for that reason,” Merlihan said. “It was just really exciting just because it is senior year and in my career here we hadn’t beaten them.”
Swimming coach Cyndi Gallagher seemed satisfied with her team’s performance after a loss against Washington State during its last meet.
“Washington State was a good learning meet, they just made changes from one meet to the next, which is kind of what you want them to do, to continue this improvement,” Gallagher said. “We really tried to focus on ourselves today. Michaela, that was her first big win and that one-two-three (in the 500-yard freestyle) was great. In the 1,000 they went one-two-three on us, so it’s nice to be like, ‘All right, we’re back.’”
UCLA swept the top spots in three more events, the 200-yard butterfly, 200-yard breaststroke and 3-meter diving events against Arizona.
“This is our first really big meet of the season against Arizona, a personal challenge, a test,” Gallagher said. “We always have really close meets with them… and you never really know who’s gonna win every time you go against them… We haven’t won in four years against Arizona.”
On Saturday, UCLA completed the sweep of Arizona schools when it beat Arizona State University 162-131. With the victory, the Bruins earn a 7-1 overall record and are 3-1 in the Pac-12.
“Arizona state, they’re an up-and-coming team, and they have good kids in every event, so it was good,” Gallagher said.
There were several standouts for the Bruins in the two meets. One of them was freshman swimmer Kenisha Liu, who nabbed victories in the 200-yard individual medley Friday and the 200-yard freestyle both days. She swam a season best of 1:49.17 in the 200-yard freestyle and also helped the team finish first in the 400-yard freestyle relay.
“I think the thing I did well today was the racing, … and I was pretty smart about how I strategized my races,” Liu said on Friday. “I just thought that today, we fed off each other’s energy. It started off a little slow, but then, as we started winning more, it gained more momentum and we were just all really excited.”
Merlihan and redshirt senior Katy Campbell finished first and second in the 500-yard freestyle both days, each taking turns to come in first. Freshman swimmer Amy Okada came out on top in the 100-yard butterfly Saturday and the 200-yard butterfly both days, clocking a season best of 1:59.86 the second time.
“The support (from her teammates) really helped me push, finish the last races. … The band coming I think that really helped us get pumped up for our races,” Okada said. “Also I think the training has been really good for me. We’ve been working a lot, especially on the race technique and mental training. We listen to a lot of podcasts.”
Gallagher, who has coached the UCLA swimming team for 29 seasons, appeared happy with the overall performances of the two freshmen.
“Every time they swim, they’re learning something, I’ve seen the changes in them,” Gallagher said. “Amy keeps getting faster and swimming better with more confidence, and Kenisha, she changed the way she swam and the first thing is that she’s been getting a lot more confident.”
Gallagher also said that the support at home made a difference to the team’s performance.
“All our parents were in the stands, and our parents are really great supporters of our program, so we’re lucky they can take off work to see the kids,” Gallagher said. “On Saturday, we had a bunch of kids from the local club team, and that’s always great to see when people start swimming at 9, 10 years old. They were like getting autographs and everything, and the kids thought they were pretty special.”
In diving, sophomore Eloise Belanger swept the 1-meter and 3-meter events on both days. Her teammates senior Annika Lenz and junior Ciara Monahan also posted scores that were consistently in the top four.
Diving coach Tom Stebbins had a lot of praise for his team.
“I’m just really pleased with the kind of effort and the competitiveness that they brought over the last couple of days,” Stebbins said. “They’re taking their training seriously, they’re hitting all of the marks. … As long as they continue to do that and kind of trust what we have put in front of them to prepare them, I think that we’ll be in really good shape when we get to our postseason.”
The diving team travels across town for the Trojan Diving Invitational on Friday before the swimmers head to the A3 Performance Invitational in Monterey Park, California, from Nov. 17 to Nov. 19.