Feeling confident after its win last week, the Arizona swim teams travel to Los Angeles this weekend to compete with two of the state’s top teams in UCLA and Southern California.

While both the No. 5 men’s and No. 7 women’s teams are excited for the road trip, the men are particularly motivated.  

“”At USC, we really just want to go to their pool and beat up on them,”” said freshman Thomas Gutman. “”It has been a really long time since we’ve won at their pool. We usually smoke them here, so hopefully we can change that.””

Gutman is looking to break the losing cycle with the help of the team’s sprinters.

“”We have so many good sprinters on this team alone that we just need to learn from each other and go out and compete,”” Gutman said.

According to assistant coach Augie Busch, the Wildcats lost to No. 14 USC at their pool two years ago but redeemed themselves at home last year. Busch remains levelheaded about the Trojans — they shouldn’t be taken lightly.

“”USC, their women’s team is probably as good as ours, and their men’s aren’t quite as strong as ours,”” Busch said. “”But that doesn’t mean they might beat us this weekend.””

Considering UCLA doesn’t have a men’s program, the men will compete with USC today in a traditional meet and then tomorrow in some extraneous races, which will serve as additional practice.

The women will take on the No. 6 Trojans today before visiting the No. 24 Bruins on Saturday.

Despite the quick turnaround between two challenging teams, Busch doesn’t believe his team will struggle in day two.

“”It’s actually really good because Pac-10 and NCAAs are all three and four-day meets, so learning to race on back-to-back days is pretty critical,”” Busch said. “”Dual meet season kind of gives us a chance to do that.””