PALO ALTO, CA—On Saturday, March 1st, the Bruins stepped out for their second competition weekend of the year. This would also be the most important meet so far: they needed to prove the 6-hour drive to Northern California was worth it, and they needed to perform well on Saturday in particular, as it was Western Regionals, the day that would decide whether they would qualify for Collegiate Nationals. They faced yet another challenge, too: this would be the first competition, and the only competition, where the Bruins would perform all of their routines, all the way through, in one day, and return the next day to do the same. As usual, the Bruins were determined to meet the moment.
Saturday morning began with the technical events. As the first Bruin to enter the water, freshman Angela Hu also made her debut as part of the UCLA Artistic Swimming team in the A category. After a brief break, Hu had only just returned to the sport weeks before, but her hard work and talent secured her 4th place, just behind varsity- and Olympic-level swimmers Megumi Field and Calista Liu. The Bruins also dominated both the B and C categories, taking the top 3 spots in each. Senior Ariel Peterson saw her first B-category win after achieving a career-high score, duet partner, fellow senior, and team captain Katie MacDonald followed closely behind with only tenths of a point between them, and another solid swim slid freshman Karen Wang neatly into third. Meanwhile, the Bruins' other duet swept the C category, with senior Nadia Grishanina securing another win, freshman Celeste Acosta following her, graduate student Olivia LeVine taking third, and last season's D category silver medalist and junior Rose Anderson finishing in fifth.
When the technical events finished, the Bruins prepared themselves to show off their full routines for the judges for the first time. First up was duet, and after being drawn first, it was on MacDonald and Peterson to open up the routine competition. The two received only one basemark despite the risky moves they performed and the exceptionally high difficulty of their routine, and they ended in third, once again only falling behind the Olympian swimmers from Stanford. Perhaps the more impressive feat, however, was Acosta's and Grishanina's full swim of a routine that was only newly finished, for which they were awarded zero basemarks and finished in fifth.
Following duet was solo, a category that would see the most-ever entries from the Bruin team. Hu swam her first routine for UCLA with strength and skill, earning just one basemark and taking second just behind a graduate student from Stanford University. LeVine's self-choreographed solo landed her in second, and Anderson's solo debut on the collegiate artistic swimming stage afforded her a solid third, ahead of the soloist from the University of Arizona.
Next was the collegiate-exclusive trio category. With two brand-new lifts and a full routine, Grishanina, MacDonald, and Peterson received zero basemarks on their difficult hybrids and finished in second, ahead of the University of Arizona and behind only Stanford's Olympian-dominated trio.
The Bruins next had to overcome their fatigue from strong performances in the other categories to take on the longest event of the competition: the team. This would be the first meet with Hu joining Acosta, Grishanina, MacDonald, Peterson, and Wang, so in addition to focusing on keeping their movements sharp and clean, they would need to remember the new patterns and choreography written just weeks earlier. Fortunately, or perhaps expectedly, given their UCLA spirit, the team achieved their best swim of the season and were awarded second place, once again between Arizona and Stanford.
After a successful first day at Avery Aquatics Center, the Bruins returned to their Airbnb to rest up for the next day of competition, where they would face their most daunting competition yet: both Stanford and The Ohio State University, the two Division 1 varsity teams that have historically traded off Nationals wins. Because of the differences in status, resources, and funding between the varsity teams and UCLA's club team, the Bruins set their goals at making any and all possible improvements upon Saturday's performances.
And improve they did. In Sunday's duet competition, MacDonald and Peterson heeded the feedback from the previous day's judges and swam a few last-minute changes in order to avoid a certain basemark and up their artistic impression. Acosta and Grishanina, swimming a tighter, cleaner, routine impressed the judges enough to significantly pull up their execution scores. Anderson and Hu also each improved their execution scores in their respective solos, as did the trio, whose opening lifts scored almost a full point higher than the day before. The meet again concluded with team, and Acosta, Grishanina, Hu, MacDonald, Peterson, and Wang fought their aching muscles to push their lifts ever-higher such that for the first time, all three passed the technical controller's scrutinizing eye.
This meet would be another success for the Bruins. Not only did all of their routines qualify for Nationals, but they received helpful notes from the judges that would guide their practice for the rest of the month leading up to their final competition of the year. They also conquered what would be the two most intense days of competition of the season, for which they are all extremely proud of themselves.
The Bruins would like to thank Stanford University for hosting them and congratulate the swimmers from UC San Diego's brand-new team on attending their first competition. They would also like to extend congratulations to Stanford's graduating seniors, who were honored for their hard work and dedication at the meet.
The Bruins will return for their final meet of the year, and the largest competition yet, the 2025 Collegiate National Championship in Ypsilanti, Michigan from March 28-29th.
