The No. 9 Arizona men's swimming and diving team travels to Northern California this weekend to face Pacific 10 Conference rivals No. 8 California and No. 2 Stanford.

With a 3-3 dual meet record, the Wildcats are hungry for a win after losing to No.1 Michigan, 135-109 on Jan. 6. But winning the dual meets is not the team's most important goal.

"At this point, we emphasize trying to make the NCAAs," said UA head swim coach Frank Busch. "The dual meets don't matter as much as making standard qualifying times."

Leading Arizona are juniors Abe Wick and Adam Grodzki. Against the Wolverines, Wick won the 50-meter freestyle in 24.47 seconds, while Grodzki finished first in the 100m free with a time of 54.67. Sophomore Jason Hodder posted a victory in the 200m breast stroke, finishing with a time of 2 minutes, 26.04 seconds.

Divers Brian Spears and Andre Sabbah finished first and second in the 1-meter and 3-meter events against Michigan.

As always, the Bay Area teams present a challenging test for the Wildcats. California is led by senior Ugur Taner, who is the two-time NCAA champion in the 200 butterfly, and the NCAA runner-up in the 200 free.

"Taner is a great kid and a very good swimmer," Busch said. "He has a great chance of repeating as NCAA champion."

Leading the Stanford Cardinal is senior Ray Carey, who was the NCAA champion in the 200 butterfly three years ago as a sophomore.

"These are two very good teams who always do well toward the end of the year," Busch said.