Arlyn's Swims

 

UCLA vs USC, 2016 - Arlyn's last college dual meet

Not only is this Arlyn's last college dual meet, but this is a video of her last college dual meet race - the 400y Individual Medley. This is the last Individual race at the last home meet of the season for UCLA, and a spectacular one at that. (Be patient - it's a large file because the 400 IM is a long race!)

 

Arlyn Featured in a Daily Bruin Article

Arlyn's UCLA career was the topic of an article in the Daily Bruin on Wednesday, February 3, 2016. Click here to read the article: UCLA swimmer Arlyn Upshaw remains resolute through four seasons.

If that link doesn't get you to the article then click here to see our own copy!

 

Who is Karen Moe and What Does She Have to do With Arlyn?

For the answer to the above question take a look at this article published on Tuesday, February 23, 2016 in the Daily Bruin: How UCLA swim alumna Karen Moe turned the tide for women's sports.

If that link doesn't get you to the article then click here to see our own copy!

 

UCLA vs USC, 2015: 400y IM

This race is a fun one. As you'll see, the PAC-12 network is showing the meet live, and Amy Van Dyken is announcing the race. As expected the network concentrated on the star of the event (Jasmine Tosky), but you'll see that the focus changes as the race proceeds.

 

 

Special Holiday Message from UCLA's Student-Athletes

This is the content of an email all the UCLA supporters received about a week before Christmas, 2014.

As you can see, the above card contains a "Play" button that, when clicked on, sent the user to the UCLA web site to view a video Christmas card. Click the play button below to view the video that was hosted on the UCLA website.

Click here to see the holiday card on the UCLA web site (if it's still there.)

 

2014 Winter Nationals - 200y Butterfly

On Saturday, December 6th, Arlyn swam the 200 fly in the morning prelims, qualifying 21st with a time of 1:59.88. That was another best time for her, breaking 2 minutes for the first time. The video below shows the evening "C" finals in which Arlyn is swimming in lane 6 (6th lane up from the bottom.) In the finals she breaks 2 minutes for the second time in a single day, proving that her morning swim wasn't a fluke!

 

2014 Winter Nationals - 400y IM

On Friday, December 5th, Arlyn swam the 400 IM in the morning prelims, qualifying 11th with a time of 4:15.87. Below is a video of the evening "B" finals in which Arlyn is swimming in lane 3 (3rd lane up from the bottom.) Unfortunately she doesn't swim as well as hoped, but it's still a fast time and deserves credit for making it to the "B" finals.

 

2014 Winter Nationals - 200y IM

On Thursday, December 4th, Arlyn swam the 200 IM in the morning prelims, qualifying 24th with a time of 2:00.79. The link below will play the video of the evening "C" finals in which Arlyn is swimming in lane 8 (top of the screen - furtherest from view.) In the finals she actually improves her best time and finishes very well.

 

2012 Grand Prix - 200 IM

Qualifying to swim in a Grand Prix is quite an accomplishment. As it turned out, this was Arlyn's last chance to swim the 200 IM (meters) to qualify for the upcoming Olympic Trials. It's one of her best races, and she does qualify for trials! In the video below she's in lane 3 (3rd from the top.)

 

 

2016 Pac-12 All-Academic Honors

Sometime around mid-April, 2016, the top academic athletes in Pac-12 swimming and diving were announced. Arlyn was one of three Bruin swimmers/divers named to the First Team. Here is the link to the article published by the Pac-12:
Pac-12 announces women's swimming & diving all-academic teams
UCLA published their own article here:
Pac-12 All-Academic Honors Announced - UCLABruins.com
If the above links don't work we have our own copies. Here is the Pac-12 article:
Our copy of the Pac-12 announcement
And the UCLA announcement:
Our copy of the UCLA announcement

 

 

2016 UCLA Scholar-Athlete of the Year

Every year near the beginning of May UCLA holds a UCLA Scholar-Athlete Banquet honoring those athletes who earned a 3.5 grade point average or better for the year. Arlyn has been invited to the banquet every year she has been at UCLA. This year she got a special honor: she was named the female Scholar-Athlete of the Year for UCLA, awarded to the female graduating senior with the highest cumulative GPA. Here is a link to the article published by UCLA:
UCLA Scholar-Athletes Honored
If the above doesn't work we have our own copy:
Our copy of the UCLA Scholar-Athletes
Here is a picture taken during the event, and also a few tweets from the UCLA swimming fans and coaches:

 

 

2017: UPDATE on the UCLA Scholar-Athlete of the Year

Sometime prior to October, 2017, UCLA hung up a new plaque in the athlete center. Here is the plaque:

Here we focus on the latest recipients of the UCLA Scholar-Athlete of the Year award:

It seems that swimmers are pretty smart!

 

 

Update: January, 2019

They updated the Morgan center at UCLA and added Arlyn to the board. Click to expand:

 

Arlyn Induction Into Piedmont Sports Hall of Fame

On Saturday, February 8th, 2020, Arlyn was inducted into the Piedmont Sports Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame recognizes outstanding Piedmont High School athletes, coaches, administrators, boosters and community members.

Here are the 2020 inductees.

The press release in the local newspaper.

A bunch of pictures of the event (click to expand):
Arlyn at the entrance to the Claremont Country Club which hosted the ceremony
Arlyn's mom (Polly) at the country club pool - where else would she be?
Introduction slide prior to introducing the athletes.
Coach Helen introducing Arlyn at the ceremony.
Arlyn giving her speech.
Another picture of Arlyn at the podium.
Arlyn with coach Helen and coach Jesus.
Arlyn with her parents (Polly and Bob).
Arlyn with her primary supporters!
Arlyn with her award.

Helen's speech:

Arlyn's speech:

 

 

 

 

 

Fan Support

2015 Pac-12s Cheering

When we (Polly and Bob) first joined the swim and dive parents group in 2012 we didn't know what was going on. We discovered that what the parents liked to do was invent something special for the Pac12s. The 2013 Pac12s were our first Pac12s, and for those we each had our daughters picture on a stick which we'd wave when cheering. The next year we had Big Heads of some of the girls, again waiving them while cheering. The goal in all this was to stand out amongst the parents from all the different schools. We did. But as the 2015 Pac12s were approaching there were no new ideas coming up, so Polly suggested some kind of "light shirts", similar to what we'd seen in Santa Monica earlier that year. A little research showed that nothing fit our requirements (had to be UCLA-centric.) So I (Bob) looked at building something, but it was going to require too much time as we only had a few months. So Polly found and bought some "lighted gloves", which we tried out and decided that they would be a fun addition to our 8-clap cheer. After getting most of the parents to chip in we bought about 40 pair and debuted them at the 2015 Pac12s. Here's a video showing the result (your browser must support Flash):
UCLA Parents and Fans cheer Bruins style.

If that link didn't work try our copy (Flash is not necessary):
Our Copy of: UCLA Parents and Fans cheer Bruins style.

 

 

 

UCLA vs USC, 2016 - Arlyn's last college dual meet

Not only is this Arlyn's last college dual meet, but this is a video of her last college dual meet race - the 400y Individual Medley. This is the last Individual race at the last home meet of the season for UCLA, and a spectacular one at that. (Be patient - it's a large file because the 400 IM is a long race!)