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  CHRIS BACKLEY/Daily Bruin Tamara Bal competes in the 200-meter backstroke in a meet against Washington State earlier this season.

By Oshin Aivazian

Daily Bruin Contributor

The battle of California swimming and diving supremacy begins this weekend, as UCLA welcomes Stanford and California.

Both visitors are among the nation’s best swimming programs and will be competing against the Bruins for the first time this season.

With the NCAA tournament two months away, the meets this weekend bear great importance for the Bruins.

“Our goal is to do well in the NCAA tournament, however we must do well in these following weekends so that we can enter strong,” assistant swimming coach Greg Meehan said.

The strength of the Bruins is apparent in their domination of the freestyle events, in which they feel they can out-compete Stanford and California.

With all the time spent conditioning in the pool and on the track, the Bruins are sure not to let these two teams spoil their successful season.

“We’re quick and practice has made us quicker … We can touch that wall so fast,” said Katie Younglove, a senior freestyle swimmer.

Diving will be equally intense this weekend, as the UCLA diving team returns from a fairly solid performance in the Bruin Invitational.

The Bruins have had time to heal the injuries that kept them from performing at top caliber in the meet two weeks ago.

“We’re considerably healthy and getting back to where we should be at this point in the season,” diving coach Tom Stebbins said.

Many Bruin divers have already qualified for the NCAA Zone, the stage of competition preceding the NCAA Tournament, and are poised to take on Stanford and California, whom they expect to meet in post-season competition.

“We’ve developed a lot physically and know a lot about our opponents, all we can do now is win,” Stebbins said.