W. swim gets
win over Cal, falls prey to top-ranked Cardinal
By Ross Bersot
BERKELEY — Pride was prevalent as the UCLA swim team posted a
1-1 performance on the road against Stanford and California.
In an event highlighted by outstanding individual performances,
the Bruins were beaten by the Cardinal on Thursday, 163-133.
With two events left, working against an insurmountable Stanford
lead and an ever-present dull drizzle, UCLA senior swimmer Jamie
Marion had no reason to try in the 200 individual medley. She
rarely has competed in the event and had earned a second in the
grueling 1000-yard freestyle earlier in the meet.
But in a come-from-behind effort late in the race, Marion got
her first-ever victory in that event against the No. 1 Cardinal at
deGuerre Pool.
"Jamie Marion had a great swim," UCLA head coach Cyndi Gallagher
said. "That showed a lot of Bruin pride."
Another 200, this one the butterfly, allowed Annette Salmeen to
accomplish another Bruin season-first, an NCAA automatic
qualification mark. Her lightning-fast 1:59.89 not only won the
race, but was the second-best time in the nation this season.
"It was almost a surprise to me because I went into the race and
all I was thinking about was how to swim the race," Salmeen said.
"Brad (Burnham, UCLA assistant coach) has been telling us all along
all of these little technical details to work on. So I came in and
that’s what I was focusing on, was how to swim the race and then I
looked up and I made the cut. I was really surprised, but I was
really glad."
Stanford’s Claudia Franco showed a notable lack of hospitality
in killing the Bruins. The sophomore came from behind in the last
leg of both the 200 medley relay and the 200 free relay to steal
the race from the visitors.
Friday’s competitive fire carried over to Saturday’s matchup
with the Bears in Berkeley as the Bruins dominated, 180-120.
Led by the three victories from senior Natalie Norberg and the
one-two-three performances of the diving corps on both boards, the
Bruins reached their second highest point total of the season.
Norberg displayed a mastery of the freestyle stroke in winning
the 50, 200 and 500 all in the same meet.
"I felt that I had some good races. I swam some things that I
don’t usually get to swim, like the 50, and I had a good race so I
was happy," Norberg said. "It’s kind of fun to swim things that you
usually don’t swim."
Erin Simmons placed first in the one-meter diving event, while
Tracy Wilcox was runner-up. The two switched on the three-meter
board. Rose Huelskamp garnered third-place honors on both boards
but, more importantly, the freshman reached NCAA zone qualifying
totals in both diving events.
"This is by far (Huelskamp’s) best performance of the year,"
UCLA diving coach Tom Scotty said. "Like the others, she’s showing
signs of being real tough at the (Pacific-10 Championships) and
zones so I’m very happy."
The Bruins record moved to 6-4 (3-1 in the Pac-10).
"It was good, but we still have some spots where we’ve got to do
better at," Gallagher said. "No one was horrible and everyone was
finding their way a little bit. Both of them were good meets."