UCLA at the 2022 NCAA Championships: Day 2

ATLANTA – Senior Claire Grover reached the finals of the 50 free to highlight UCLA's performance at day two of the 2022 NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships, held in Georgia Tech's McAuler Aquatics Center.

Grover's effort in the 50 free was notable in myriad way for the Bruins.

The Scottsdale, Ariz. native went a personal-best 21.82 during prelims, tying for 11th place and clinching a spot in the 16-swimmer final. That mark was a .16 second improvement on her previous-best time, and represents the No. 2 time in the 50 free in school history (trailing only Linnea Mack's 21.67, set in 2017). It was the second time in Grover's career that she broke the 22-second mark in the 50 free, and the first time since 2019. 

Grover followed that up by going 21.01 in the Consolation Final, ending up in 13th place. That made her the first Bruin swimmer to score at NCAAs since Katie Grover (no relation) did so in the 200 free during the 2017-18 season. 

While Grover was the lone Bruin to reach a final on Thursday, all four of UCLA's NCAA qualifiers were in action.

Freshman Paige MacEachern was the first Bruin to hit the water at NCAAs, swimming to a 41st place finish in the 500 free with a time of 4:45.25. That was her second-best time of the year.

Junior Gabby Dang joined Grover in the 50 free prelims, taking 65th overall at 22.95.

After the swim prelims, junior Hannah Butler netted a 40th place finish in 1-meter diving with a score of 240.00. She scored over 40 points on each of her final three dives, including a list-high 46.80 on her last attempt.

UCLA returns to action at NCAAs on Friday, and all four qualifiers will be in action once again. MacEachern will tackle the 400 IM, Dang will compete in the 100 fly, Grover will swim the 100 breast, and Butler will look to make noise in 3-meter diving.

Stay tuned to @UCLASwimAndDive on Twitter for all team updates from Atlanta.