Monday, October 19, 1998
Swimmers, divers overpower opposition
Bruins easily beat San Diego during first competition of
season
By Steve Kim
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The women’s swimming and diving team defeated the University of
San Diego Toreros 195-103 Friday, in their first meet of the
season.
The Bruins simply outnumbered the Toreros in team size and
overall scoring. With the exception of the 100-meter backstroke and
one-meter diving, Bruins earned all the first-place finishes.
The swim meet portion of Friday’s competition was designed to
assess the skills of the 20 or so freshmen who make up a large part
of UCLA’s squad, according to head coach Cyndi Gallagher. She swam
her freshmen in their best events, while the returning members
experimented with non-specialty races.
‘The upperclassmen have more flexibility, so I like to make sure
they don’t race the same events every meet because I don’t want
them to get stale,’ Gallagher said. ‘I put the freshmen in their
best events to see who can stand up, and who’s got it.’
Thus, freshmen were able to win races and gain confidence from
their first college meet. Long-distance freestyle events were taken
by Erin Thomas in the 1000-meter freestyle and Katie Younglove in
the 500-meter freestyle. Younglove also won the 200-meter
butterfly.
‘My times were ahead of where I was this time of the season last
year, so I was happy,’ Younglove said. ‘But I could always work on
my stroke still. I was trying to go fast and not worry about my
technique, but I need to work on it.’
The 100-meter breaststroke and the 400-meter Individual Medley
(IM) were Jen Noddle’s events, while Lyndee Hovespian won the
200-meter breaststroke. After being out-touched by USD’s Melissa
Willard in the 100-meter backstroke, freshman Nicole Beck came back
to out-touch Willard on the 200-meter backstroke. Julia Voitovisch
took the 100-meter butterfly, Angela Belloni won the 50-meter
freestyle and Katie Ryan took the 100-meter freestyle.
Though the returning swimmers did not compete in their best
events, they were still valuable, as Bruins won both the 200-meter
medley and 400-meter freestyle relays. Junior Keiko Price, a sprint
specialist, won the 200-meter freestyle and earned a third-place
finish on the 500-meter freestyle.
Though sophomore Beth Goodwin’s forte is the 100-meter
butterfly, she raced the 200-meter butterfly and the 100-meter
freestyle. Having only competed in the 200-meter butterfly once or
twice before, she liked the challenge of seeing how she could do.
She clocked in at an unofficial time of 2:06.12, which would have
been second to Younglove’s official time of 2:03.63.
‘Cyndi thinks the 200 (butter)fly may be an NCAA event for me,
but I’m hoping it won’t be,’ she joked. ‘I’m hoping to stick to the
100 fly and maybe add the 50 free(style).’
For the Bruin divers, the strategy was much different. The Bruin
win came down to a matter of outnumbering the opponent. USD only
entered one diver, so the objective was not to outscore the
opposition, but to strive for personal best times.
USD’s Shannon Pace proved to be a tough cookie, though, as she
won the one-meter springboard and placed second on the three-meter
event. UCLA sophomore Anne Baghramian claimed the three-meter event
and the rest of the Bruins filled in the empty places.
‘I’m happy with the progress everyone’s made so far,’ diving
coach Tom Stebbins said. ‘Board work has been a lot better. We had
lots of really good tops and starts but then missed the bottom. But
it’s early, so the consistency comes later.’
Now that everyone on the team has had a taste of a college-level
swimming and diving meet, the freshmen and the returning members
feel more confident in the team’s unity and competence, said senior
backstroker Amanda Hall.
‘Our freshmen have fallen into the swing of things,’ said the
co-captain. ‘They came from pretty good programs so cumulatively,
we have a good bunch of girls ready to step up and fill the shoes
of a lot of seniors who graduated  and they’re big shoes to
fill.’
USD didn’t provide too much competition, so this meet was the
Bruins’ to win. Future meets promise to have much tougher
opponents, and Gallagher stressed they have to take the experience
and confidence they picked up from this meet and use that to make
progress.
‘Getting up and competing in a meet environment is really good,’
Gallagher said. ‘We still have work to do the stuff we’ve been
teaching them, so in three weeks, it’s going to be a different
team.’
PATIL ARMENIAN
Becky Brackett dives off of the three meter board at the Sunset
Pool.
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