Washington State women’s swimming struggled to keep its head above water this weekend as the Cougars began their season with losses to USC and UCLA this past weekend.

WSU fell first to the USC on Thursday 150-106. In a highly competitive 50-meter freestyle race, WSU sophomore Haley Rose Love finished the event in second place and was the Cougars’ top point contributor of the meet.

WSU junior Frederikke Hall won the 100-meter breaststroke event, finishing the race in just 1:05:12 seconds. Hall finished the meet with 15 points.

Freshman Anna Brolin made a splash in her collegiate swimming debut with a second-place finish in the 100-meter butterfly. Brolin finished the race in 56.33 seconds, 0.59 seconds faster than teammate senior Alison Mand.

Mand earned 19 points for the Cougars against USC, with second-place finishes in the 200-meter medley relay and the 400-meter freestyle relay.

Head Coach Tom Jager saw vast improvement from the team in comparison to the Cougars’ last visit to the Uytengsu Aquatic Center.

“We swam great,” Jager said in an interview with wsucougars.com. “We were down here a couple years ago, and we scored about 50 more points this time than that time. I think we’ve built a good team this year.”

WSU then traveled to Westwood to face UCLA on Friday, falling to the Bruins by a score of 143-104. Junior Presley Wetterstrom had an impressive performance in the 200-meter breaststroke event, winning the race over UCLA’s Taylor Carlson by 2.59 seconds. Wetterstrom finished the meet as the Cougars’ top point contributor with 16 points against the Bruins.

Juniors Loree Olson and Shaya Schaedler earned the top two spots for the Cougars in the 200-meter backstroke event. Olson won the event with a time of 2:04:51, and Schaedler followed with a time of 2:05:78.

The Cougars ended the trip to Southern California on a high note, winning the 200-meter freestyle relay with the team of freshman Hannah Bruggman, senior Nicole Proulx, Love, and Mand.

Despite the losses, the Cougars and coach Jager left Los Angeles in high spirits.

“The women swam great,” Jager said. “It’s good to hit USC and UCLA early in the season and get this type of competition in our system.”

The team returns to competition against the Arizona Wildcats this Friday, Oct. 17 at 5 p.m. in the team’s home opener.

Reporting by Curtis Calhoun