ANNA AVIK UCLA’s swimming and diving team squares off
against UCSB and Oregon St. in the first meet of the season this
Saturday.
By Calley Prezzano
Daily Bruin Contributor
The UCLA women’s swimming and diving team heads up to UC
Santa Barbara this afternoon to challenge the Gauchos and the
Oregon State Beavers in the Bruins’ first meet of the
season.
The squad knows they are the team to beat and that neither UCSB
nor OSU should provide fierce competition.
“We’ve swam against teams like that, and cleaned
their clocks,” head coach Cyndi Gallagher said.
However, the team does see today’s meet as more of a test
of the effectiveness of this season’s new training
program.
The team’s training techniques vary each year. This year
focuses on dry-land exercises, as well as additional time in the
pool. This includes more running, medicine balls and stretch
cords.
“Our dry-land (time) overall has increased from last year,
which was zero (hours),” volunteer assistant coach Don Witzel
said.
According to Witzel, the meet is also a test to see where the
squad is by way of speed, stroke technique and race management.
“I feel really good about the season in general,”
freshman Jeannette Nieto said. “(This meet) will be a good
starting off point.”
SWIMMING vs. & Today All Day UC Santa
Barbara
Although this afternoon’s meet is a fun and instructive
foundation for the season, it holds more meaning to the swimmers
who plan to travel in upcoming meets.
The results from today will help the UCLA coaches determine who
will go to the Southern Methodist University Classic, which takes
place Nov. 2 and 3. Only eight swimmers will be allowed to
travel.
According to Gallagher, it doesn’t matter how well they
swam last season, but what each swimmer can do right now, during
the most intense training of the year.
“We need to learn how to swim fast when (we’re)
tired, and learn how to swim fast against any team,”
Gallagher said. “(The swimmers should) prepare like
it’s a big meet against a team like Stanford. Every single
dual meet is important and needs preparation.”
Sophomore Naoko Watanabe agreed.
“This won’t be our biggest meet, but still, our
focus is to defend our (Pac-10) title,” she said.