Wednesday, March 4, 1998
Good times
After four years together, these young women share unique
bond
By Steve Kim
Daily Bruin Staff
hat do you call a group of eight healthy, happy senior
swimmers?
An energetic festival of estrogen.
These UCLA swimmers are the ones who quite frequently drive head
coach Cyndi Gallagher nuts. They’re the notorious group assistant
coach Brad Burnham jokes he ran away from, alluding to his
temporary absence after their freshman year. They may have matured
over four years, but their strong identity as a group despite the
diversity in their personalities makes this group downright
lively.
"All of us have really unique qualities that add to the group,"
one senior said.
The senior class of 1998 started out as 10 freshmen recruits in
the fall of 1994. They were as different as could be, from bubbly
Lindsay Etter to quiet and monotonic Cindy Bertelink to
off-the-wall Jill Jenkins.
Their fate within the sport of swimming has brought them to UCLA
and assigned them to each other. Where they decided to go to school
was their choice, but who their teammates would be was not.
"I remember the first time we came here," recalls Lara Potter,
"the first thing our coach Cyndi said was, ‘OK, our No. 1 goal here
is to have fun. No. 2 is to swim fast.’ I was like shocked, but I
think that’s the spirit of our class – to give the team a positive
attitude. I have my fondest memories with these girls."
After the initial freshman jitters, they had no trouble getting
along. In fact, they may have gotten along too well. They were
inseparable; joined at the hip; a she-gang of eager, wide-eyed
freshmen.
They were together day and night, night and day. Even after a
six-hour practice day, they met at a certain time each evening at
the Hedrick dining hall. When the girls got sick of dorm food, they
started a "supper club," where they cooked for each other Thursday
nights to remind them of the home cooking they so missed in dorm
life.
"Yeah, but I don’t think supper club is quite home cooking!"
jokes Kiley Ames-Klein.
They chatted nightly. They hung out on weekends, when they
weren’t swimming. They even took road trips to places like San
Francisco and Lake Tahoe, where they went sledding in bikinis.
And then came the harsh reality of growing up and becoming
independent adults. The togetherness and enthusiasm of the class
deteriorated with age. They lost three girls who each dropped out
of the swimming program. Each took on her own interests and spent
more time away from the group.
Basically, the friendship and respect for each other were still
there, but the tight bond that held them together since their
freshman year had been broken naturally and gradually by that
process called life.
Amidst the loss of old friends, they have gained transfer
student Leslie Carr. She may have missed two years of swimming in
the UCLA program, but she looks at it as gaining two more.
"I was nervous coming in as a transfer because I didn’t know
anyone," Carr said. "They invited me to their supper club and made
me feel right at home. The support and fellowship I’ve had was just
amazing. Looking back at it, it’s been the best two years I
could’ve ever asked for. It’s an experience I would never
trade."
Carr’s teammate, Jenkins, agrees about the importance of their
bonding.
"It’s an experience not a lot of people get to have, and we’re
very fortunate we’ve got to spend these years together even though
it hasn’t been always good," Jenkins said. "We were all different
people thrown together. We’ve done different things but we’ve
always come together."
Four years of getting up at 5:30 a.m. for their morning swim.
Four years of stretching their dedication with varying results. But
win or lose, like it or not, they’ve been together as part of the
UCLA swimming team. And while some others may be driven up the wall
spending so much time with each other, it has been an unforgettable
four years for these swimmers.
"You come into college not knowing any of them," Etter said,
"and then you go through your hardest times in workouts to the best
times, seeing them swim successfully. I came in not being able to
realize what all this would be like, and now I know. And I’m
thankful for them, more now than I thought I would ever be."
"We’ve been there for each other through good and bad times,"
said Katie Stuppi. "We feel like we can go to each other any
time."
Many will remain and finish school next year, but there are a
few more things they still have to do as a group before this year
ends. They’ve planned a spring break to Hawaii, and there will be
more supper clubs even after their last season together.
Then, there’s the traditional year-end ritual, the naked swim,
where seniors take it all off in the Men’s Gym pool for their last
team workout of the season. It’s a way of feeling more at one with
the water.
"You can just say in advance that I loved the naked swim!"
Jenkins said. "But there will be no jump starts off the diving
blocks."
Whether Jenkins’s nude-diving statement applied to just her or
the whole group, her teammates showed gratitude for the
announcement.
So there are still moments of fun for these grown-ups. After
all, fun is what college swimming has been all about.
"Just recently, I remember seeing a random poster picture of us
as freshmen in a club hockey game crowd," recalls Bertelink. "It’s
so funny to look at how young you looked and how much you’ve grown
over the four years.
"Coming to UCLA as a freshman was huge. I left my country of
Canada, I was at the other side of the continent and I didn’t know
a soul. But we’ve bonded. Aren’t you supposed to have the best
years of your life in college? Yeah, I can say that."
Many feel one can’t sum up four years of her life in a sentence
or quote. But Ames-Klein gives it a try. Her summary is simple and
to the point – the perfect description of these seniors’ four years
at UCLA.
"It’s been fun."GENEVIEVE LIANG/Daily Bruin
(l-r) Katie Stuppi, Cindy Bertelink, Lindsay Etter, Leslie Carr,
Miranda Walz, (kneeling) Kiley Ames-Klein, Lara Potter, and Jill
Jenkins.