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No. 1 ranked Bruins divide for upcoming weekend meets
Team looks to improve times; Texas will also host divers
ANNA AVIK Kristen Tinney swims a freestyle race earlier this season. The Bruins will go to The Speedo Cup in Texas this weekend.
By Calley Prezzano
Daily Bruin Contributor
The No. 1 UCLA women’s swim team will divide and head to two different meets this weekend. One group will go to the Texas Invitational in Austin, Texas, along with the diving team, and the other will go to The Speedo Cup in Long Beach.
The swimming team made an amazing jump to the top spot in the nation from last year’s final standing at No. 8. Head coach Cyndi Gallagher has never thought too much of standings, “but maybe that’s because we have never been ranked this high,” she said.
When asked how they can keep their ranking, she simply said, “We’ll just do what we can do.” And even if the team does not end the season being No. 1, Gallagher knows that this poll “got (the team) to believe that we can be No. 1.”
The Texas Invitational will be scored, but Gallagher is not concerned about getting points.
WOMEN'S SWIMMING Speedo Cup Nov. 30-Dec.2 Long Beach, CA All Day Texas Invitational Dec. 1-3 Austin, TX All Day Original by ADAM BROWN/Daily Bruin Web Adaptation by TODD SHINTANI “Swimming fast, best times and race strategies are more important that if we win the meet or not,” she said. According to Gallagher, the Bruins who qualified for Olympic trials or are at the level to qualify for NCAAs are competing in Texas. But Gallagher realizes that it may be too early in the season to swim that fast.
At Texas the team will swim against squads like No. 4 Stanford and No. 5 Cal, who are in their prime right now. UCLA will be able to scope out the top competition they will be dealing with this season. The squad will also compete against teams like Arizona and Wisconsin, who have been training since August and are now prepared to swim at a high level.
Although UCLA has been training only three months at school, the Bruins do not feel unprepared.
“We’re there to swim our own races,” freshman Brooke Winkler said. As for being ranked No. 1 in the nation, Winkler isn’t intimidated or worried.
“It made us excited about what we’re capable of,” she added.
Even senior Beth Goodwin and true freshman Sara Platzer, who have already qualified to swim at NCAAs, will have to race hard this weekend. According to Gallagher, the NCAA takes the top 20 to 25 swimmers in each event, so someone can be dropped anytime in the season if another swimmer clocks in a faster time.
“If someone swims a last minute ‘ditch meet,’ our girl could be out of her spot,” Gallagher said. “We’ll just have to go fast.”
Gallagher knows the team’s potential and is confident in her swimmers’ capabilities. Since the team only started training in September, UCLA’s only weakness against the other teams will be the amount of training time. While No. 12 Wisconsin, No. 7 USC and No 3 Arizona are at their peak now, UCLA will just keep getting faster and faster as the season progresses, according to Gallagher.
“Each month we get faster,” she said. “We’re fast in December. We’ll be fast in February, and even faster in March.”
Joining the team in Texas will be the UCLA women’s diving squad, which has not competed in several weeks. Three of the divers, senior Anne Baghramian, sophomore Regan Gosnell and true freshman Michelle Brown, have already qualified for the NCAA Zone E Meet. The goal for the other divers, including junior Chrissie Amorosia and sophomore Jen McNally, will be to join their teammates in qualifying. At the Zone E Meet, the top finishers will qualify to compete in diving NCAAs.
The other half of the swimming squad will compete in Long Beach against local powerhouses like Cal State Northridge and Long Beach State. Led by junior Emily Melina and true freshmen Katie Winkelhaus and Kristen Tinney, these Bruins also have the pressure of a first place ranking on their shoulders. However, assistant coach Susan Trainer thinks that the ranking, will only give them incentive to do well.
“We’re lucky in the fact that it gives the girls a lot of confidence,” she said. “It shows that they can beat the best on any day.”
According to Trainer, being able to race against impressive teams like rival USC will only be motivation for the Bruins to swim faster.
“They’ve been training for several months, training hard,” she said. “We’ll see what they do.”
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