Pac-12 Weekly Recap: USC Tops Minnesota; UCLA Honors Seniors

USC senior Patrick Mulcare posted a trio of wins while senior Alex Valente, junior Louise Hansson and sophomore Marta Ciesla won twice each to lead the Trojans to a sweep of Minnesota as well as a women’s win over Oregon State at the Uytengsu Aquatics Center on Friday (Jan. 18) as USC resumed the 2018-19 schedule.

The Trojan women improved to 6-0 overall, 4-0 in the Pac-12, the men are now 4-0, 2-0. The USC women defeated the Gophers, 146-114 and the Beavers, 204-55. The Trojan men downed Minnesota, 153-109.

Hansson, who owns the nation’s top times in the 100y and 200y fly, skipped her specialties but still came away with a sweep. She won the 100y back in 53.60 and the 200y back in 1:56.10.

Ciesla nailed her 1-2 punch by taking first in the 50y free in 23.05 and winning the 100y free in 50.43.

Mulcare won the 100y back in 48.20 and then glided to first in the 200y back in 1:48.61. Valente captured the 100y fly (48.05) before coming back to take the 200y fly in 1:48.38. Freshman Alexei Sancov was second in both races in 48.45 and 1:49.18, respectively.

Freshman Victor Johansson, shaking off the rust from a back injury in the fall, won the 1000y free in 9:12.16. Trojan freshman Owen Kao won the 500y free in 4:26.33.

Senior Carsten Vissering won the men’s 100y breast in 52.29 while senior Maddie Wright led a 1-2-3-4 sweep of the women’s 200y fly in 1:57.88.

Senior Riley Scott powered to a win in the women’s 200y breast (2:11.46).

Minnesota’s Chantal Nack won three races, taking the 200y (1:47.12) and 500y free (4:50.59) and the 200y IM (2:00.12). Bowen Becker led the Gopher men, sweeping the 50y (19.86) and 100y free (44.22).

UCLA wins on senior day

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.”

Soe won the 1000 free for the third consecutive meet, coming in at 10:02.00.

Amy Okada pulled away during the second half of the 200 free to win with a time of 1:50.13.

Schanz earned her first win of the day in the 100 back, just beating out OSU’s Felicia Anderson at 54.47.

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.

Then, Allison Goldblatt completed the 200 fly in 2:03.08 – in her collegiate debut in the event, no less – 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.

Okada was first in the 50 free at 22.82, just missing an NCAA “B” cut.

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 won the 200 breast with a time of 2:14.47. Soe took home another individual win in the 500 free in 4:55.81.

Belanger wins platform in diving invite

Another day brought another win for UCLA at the Diving Bruin Invitational, as senior Eloise Belanger followed up Maria Polyakova‘s 3-meter diving championship on Friday with a platform victory of her own on Saturday afternoon at Spieker Aquatics Center.

The reigning Pac-12 Diver of the Year, who led the 3-meter prelims and finished runner-up to Polyakova in the finals yesterday, finished atop the 44-diver field with a score of 539.50. Her mark of 274.50 was tops after the five-round prelims, and she maintained her position atop the charts through the final. Though this weekend marks her first appearance with UCLA this campaign, her prelim score was good enough to qualify her for NCAA Zone Championships in platform.

“I’ve only been back since Christmas so I didn’t have much time to train, so today wasn’t my best performance, but it was good,” said Belanger. “It can only go up from here.”

USC’s Henry Fusaro won the 1-meter with a combined 736.20.

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