UCLA looks to make splash in Bay Area

Friday, January 29, 1999

PREVIEW: Bruin squad refuses to be intimidated by Stanford's reputation

By Steve Kim

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Pair the No. 17 Bruins against the No. 2 Stanford team, and then against the No. 7 Cal squad, and one would predict the Bruins are plunging into a lose-lose situation.

Not so fast. The UCLA women's swimming and diving team does not roll over and play dead for any team, head coach Cyndi Gallagher said.

"They definitely have the advantage, highly ranked and swimming in their home meet," Gallagher said of Stanford and Cal. "But I know we'll fight all the way to the end."

As the Bruins travel up north for the successive weekend meets, they are blocking out the who's and concentrating on the how's.

"We are so focused on the season and we often re-focus on what our plan is," Gallagher said, "which is to swim faster and faster as the season goes on. We just have to mentally prepare to do our best. I'm sure we'll swim better than we have been."

Stanford is the perennial national championship team. With that in mind, it's important for the Bruins to keep themselves from becoming distracted. They must ignore the competitor's reputation and maintain their focus on the individuals.

For example, Stanford's Misty Hyman is last year's NCAA champion in the 100-yard butterfly. While racing with the best can be quite intimidating, sophomore butteflyer Beth Goodwin is not the least bit hesitant.

"I am looking forward to this so much," Goodwin said. "I've been looking for a challenge like this all year. I finally get to have some competition."

One thing which is always crucial is to concentrate on maintaining good form and technique, even under racing pressures. Once that is accomplished, the Bruin swimmers say they have a good chance against the Golden Bears, who narrowly beat them in last year's dual meet.

"It's all about technique right now," Goodwin said. "We want to swim correctly. If we do everything we're supposed to do, I think we can beat Cal."

Three UCLA divers have made the NCAA regional cut. Having accomplished that goal could have made them complacent. But seeing some tough competition at a recent invitational opened their eyes and got them determined to train harder.

"We're starting to get serious now," sophomore diver Delilah More said. "We had a bad meet a couple of weeks ago and that got us focused. We had some good competition and we got to see who was out there. Now we're fired up to give it our best shot this weekend against Cal and Stanford."

The Bruins have the attitude, and whether they will carry their mentality through these meets is to be seen after the weekend.

"It will be all positive whether we win or lose," Gallagher said. "It's going to be cold and windy up there but we're still going to swim fast. If we have to get some wins out of that, that's great, but long as we swim fast at the end, that's what counts."

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