Tuesday, February 17, 1998
UCLA comes up short despite high team spirits
Home pool advantage and support of fans can’t make up for USC’s
high-profile swimmers
By Steve Kim
Daily Bruin Contributor
It was of the most unusual circumstances. Pouring rain, harsh
wind and nagging coldness would keep just about everyone indoors to
stay warm and dry. For those who were at the Men’s Gym pool,
however, wetness wasn’t an inhibiting factor.
Swimmers, coaches,and spectators from both sides of Los Angeles
filled the atmosphere with energy and hype for the UCLA-USC meet
Saturday. Although the Trojans edged out the Bruins by the end of
the meet with their high-profile swimmers and divers, UCLA had the
early lead and stole the show with the help of home pool advantage
and some thrilling swims.
First up was the 200 medley relay, where Jill Jenkins, Amber
Wines, Beth Goodwin and Keiko Price took a commanding lead over the
other squads. Although this team and the second comers (Women of
Troy) were disqualified on technicalities, the Bruin B-squad,
composed of Amanda Hall, Lindsay Etter, Lindsey Masterson and
Jackie Castellano, came in third to take the defaulted victory.
One of the highlights for the Bruins was senior Cindy
Bertelink’s winning race in the 1650 freestyle. USC is known for
their distance swimmers, and ‘SC swimmer Jamie Johnson stuck side
by side with Bertelink. By the race’s end, Bertelink came out as
the leader.
"That was probably my season best so far," Bertelink said. "It
helped a lot to have someone there to push you the whole time along
the race. I don’t think I’ve ever won the mile against ‘SC, so I’m
happy to finish my senior season with that."
Then, Etter and Wines worked up the crowd with their one-two
finish in the 100 breaststroke.
"That’s what the Bruins are all about!" Etter said. "We’ve done
it two times and we love it."
Before the meet, senior Jenkins said she was going to "swim her
ass off," and that she did. Jenkins dominated every race she
participated in, including the relays and the 100 backstroke. Even
when a ‘SC swimmer false-started, Jenkins went all out in the 50
freestyle. When the swimmers had to race the same event over,
Jenkins repeated her victory, and the Bruins swept the race 1-2-3
with Goodwin placing second and Castellano coming in third.
"It was like the false start never happened, and it didn’t
matter. It just gave me another opportunity to go even faster and
beat up on the Trojans a little bit. They have some good swimmers
so it was great to compete and beat them."
The Women of Troy outperformed the Bruins in the 200 backstroke,
butterfly and individual medley, 100 butterfly and 500 freestyle.
And Bruin sprinter Price was out-touched by Lindsay Benko in the
200 free and by Kim Black in the 100 free.
After disappointing second places, Price redeemed herself in the
final race of the meet, the 200 freestyle relay. The ‘SC swimmers
took the lead with the first three swimmers, but Price turned it
around in the final 50 yards and earned the Bruins the pride
advantage that comes with winning relays.
"I wasn’t really happy with my 100 free. So I just went for it
on that relay. After the last flip turn, I saw where Lindsay Benko
(of ‘SC) was and I just headed towards the wall as fast as I could
go."
Although the Bruins enjoyed their highlight performances in
their last conference dual meet of the season, the Women of Troy
went home the victor.
"The Bruins swam really well and I was very impressed," said USC
head coach Mark Schubert. "The meet was very close in the first
half so we had to make major lineup changes to pull the meet out.
Kim Black and Lindsay Benko gave great performances. They handled
the lineup changes really well and did what they needed to do turn
the meet around."
The hype and excitement was all that UCLA head coach Cyndi
Gallagher expected for the Bruins to step up for this meet. And she
got just what she needed.
"We came ready to swim," Gallagher said. "Regardless of the rain
or who we were swimming against, we were going to have fun and race
our hardest. … We showed a lot of heart, gut and just raced
everybody."