UCLA Rallies to Tie Arizona State in Women’s Dual Meet
UCLA bookended Friday’s meet in Tempe with a pair of narrow relay wins as the Bruins and Arizona State tied in a dual meet, 150-all.
UCLA started the meet by claiming the 400 medley relay in 3:33.18. The quartet of Rosie Murphy, Sarah Bennetts, Jada Duncan and Anna Wetteland edged ASU’s A squad by .12 seconds. Bennetts, Wetteland, Claudia Yovanovich and Alexis Schaffer went 1:30.05 to cap the meet in the 200 freestyle relay, .44 ahead of Arizona State to recoup a deficit. Yovanovich’s 22.17 on the third leg rallied the Bruins to the front.
In between where plenty of twists and turns from the former Pac-12 rivals, marking just the third tie in UCLA program history.
UCLA took a big edge in diving, with Eden Cheng leading a 1-2-3 on 3-meter with 307.43 points. She scored 264.90 to top the field in 1-meter. The latter responded to a 1-2-3 result for the Sun Devils in the 500 free, with Deniz Ertan winning in 4:45.77 to edge out teammate Alexa Reyna, the 1,000 free winner in 9:50.26.
Murphy was the standout for UCLA. She won the 200 backstroke in 1:52.39, then claimed the 200 individual medley in 1:56.11, nearly four seconds clear of the field. Murphy was also the runner-up in the 100 back to Yovanovich (52.24).
Duncan won the 50 free in 22.02. She claimed the 100 free in 48.72, then the 100 fly in 52.06. Bennetts went 59.97 in the 100 breaststroke to win by a tenth. She also won the 200 breast.
Arizona State started strong with wins. After Reyna’s 1,000 free, Jordan Greber claimed the 200 free in 1:45.94, with teammate Grace Lindberg in second place. Sonia Vaishnani went 1:57.50 to edge Ertan in the 200 fly. Vaishnani was also second in the 200 breast. Julia Ullmann finished second in both the 50 free and 100 fly.
