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  PATIL ARMENIAN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Freshman Naoko Watanabe swam an impressive 200m backstroke race Friday afternoon against UCSB, winning by almost four seconds. UCLA 174 UCSB 79

By Amanda Fletcher

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

In their first swim meet of the season, the UCLA women’s win over UCSB was a total team effort.

In the Men’s Gym Pool on Friday, UCLA took every individual and relay title in the Bruins’ 174-79 romp over the visiting Gauchos. In five of those races, the Bruins took the top three spots, and in five others they took the top two.

“Not surprisingly it was a fun meet because a lot of them swam fast,” UCLA head coach Cyndi Gallagher said. “We’re good, really good, so much better than last year.”

Though seniors like Beth Goodwin, an All-American who took first in the 100-meter butterfly at 55.65, provided leadership in the pool, it was the underclassmen who brought in the points.

“The sophomores were great; those guys were really good,” Gallagher said.

So good that the sophomores took first place in five different races, including the 200-meter free relay where sophomores Leanne Cadag, Ashley Grissom and Erica Shugart teamed up with freshman Sara Platzer to hit the wall in only 1:36.16.

“The sophomores really stepped up,” Gallagher said. “As freshmen they were timid, but now as sophomores they’re more confident. They know the system and they know how it works and they’re not as nervous.”

And in the pool on Friday that year of experience went a long way.

“I felt better swimming as a sophomore,” Cadag said. “Much stronger than last year.”

If the sophomores swam a great meet, the freshmen were phenomenal. As a class, they had the best performance in terms of time, highlighted by Platzer’s new meet record in the 100m free. With her time of 50.82, she surpassed the previous record set in 1998 by UCLA All-American Keiko Price (’00).

“All of them swam pretty well,” Gallagher said. “I think all of them were excited about how they did.”

The best part about the freshmen swimming so well in their first meet is that, like the sophomores, there’s only room for improvement.

“I don’t have any expectations for the freshmen because even if they’re fast this year they’ll be even faster next year,” Gallagher said.

But, for the Bruins, the race wasn’t only about who had the fastest times.

“It’s a learning week for us, that’s why we videotape the meet,” Gallagher said. “We’ve been working a lot on stroke technique in the past month but it’s one thing to do it in practice and another to do it in the meet.”

From the looks of it, the work paid off. Out of 32 swimmers, 21 improved on their previous season bests, which were established in a intrasquad meet on Sept. 29.

“Today was less about time and more about swimming races,” Gallagher said.

Platzer dominated the sprints, taking first in both the 100m and 200m free, the 200m free relay and the 200m medley relay. Junior Jen Noddle won two individual events, the 100m breast and the 200m individual medley. In the 200m back freshman Naoko Watanabe was also impressive as she won her race by over four seconds with a time of 2:04:46.

“You can tell everyone really stepped up in workouts in the pre-season,” Shugart said. “Just judging by first meet and our team spirit we’re going to be really good this season.”

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