Friday, February 13, 1998
Bruins pumped up to dethrone Trojans
SWIMMING: Egged on by other schools, UCLA looks to beat
champions
By Steve Kim
Daily Bruin Contributor
This Valentine’s Day there will be a lot of wet Trojans in the
Men’s Gym Pool as the UCLA swimming team takes on cross-town
nemesis USC.
And this rivalry is as hot as it gets.
Even other teams recognize the intense rivalry. Stanford yelled
out, "Beat SC!" to the Bruins after its visit to Westwood. UC
Berkeley did the same the next day. They all have a thing against
Southern Cal, and they know the local rivalry well enough to
encourage the Bruins.
And they have their reasons.
USC happens to be the defending NCAA national champion this
season, after having made a surprise upset against perennial
champion Stanford. So this year, Southern Cal is the team to beat,
and UCLA is the underdog.
"They have kids all the way through in their lineup who are
really good. That’s why they’re national champions," said UCLA head
coach Cyndi Gallagher. "Every point counts so we’re looking to even
go for the third, fourth and fifth places."
Although USC has more depth on its squad, there will be close,
exciting races between each team’s top individuals.
Gallagher counts on senior Cindy Bertelink to do a good job of
racing the distance swimmers, and senior Lindsay Etter to come out
on top in the breaststroke events.
"It’s so awesome to have the opportunity in the season to swim
with these teams that are the best," Etter said. "It gives us (an)
opportunity to warm up to the end of the season."
Although Etter’s events are almost done deals for her,
Bertelink, along with senior backstroker Jill Jenkins, will face
tough challenges from USC’s backstroker Paige Francis and Lindsay
Benko, a world championship participant who excels in the 500
freestyle and 200 backstroke.
"They’re really good, but I know I’m going to swim my ass off
trying to beat them," Jenkins said. "It’s going to come down to
senior leaders like Lindsay, Cindy, me and Lara Potter to show our
team that it doesn’t matter what the name of the school or their
record is. We can still give it our all."
Sophomore sprinting sensation Keiko Price will get a run for her
money as she faces Southern Cal’s Kim Black, a sophomore transfer
from Ohio State who is one of the best sprinters in the country.
Price and Black both participated in the World University Games
last summer, and they’ll be reunited in the same pool as they
compete side by side in sprint events.
"She’s really nice," Price said. "I try not to think about who I
race against. I just try to focus on what I need to do within the
race, not on whether or not I’m going to win."
The UCLA diving team also has its work cut out against USC.
Three starters, Rose Huelskamp, Tracy Wilcox and Anne Baghramian
will compete against challenging USC divers.
"We’re training hard right now, and all I expect from the diving
team is to bring out normal workout quality into the meet," said
diving coach Andy Kwan. "They’re good, so we’ve got to take the
home-pool advantage."
Although both the swimming and diving teams face tough matches
this Saturday, they’re looking forward to the hype and excitement
that comes with a UCLA-USC meet.
"We’re not on equal planes on paper, but that doesn’t mean we
can’t beat them," Gallagher said. "We’ve had wilder things happen
in an USC meet. We have to be hot, and they have to be off."