W. swIm flounders at Trojan Invite
Bruins find little
improvement at last-chance meet
By Ross Bersot
The cloudy, gray skies and drizzling rain that blanketed
McDonald’s Stadium during the Trojan Invitational must have stolen
some of the UCLA women’s swim team’s thunder. Coming off an
impressive second-place showing at the Pacific-10 Conference
Championships, the Bruins were unable to improve any of their times
during Saturday’s meet.
The Trojan Invitational gave swimmers from USC, UC Santa Barbara
and UCLA a final chance to qualify for the NCAA Championships and
an opportunity to better their marginal times. Without the energy
that a big meet like Pac-10s generates, the swimmers were forced to
motivate themselves, a difficult task with the NCAA Championships
just around the corner.
"We wanted to swim a little faster," UCLA head coach Cyndi
Gallagher said. "It’s hard to do that after Pac-10s. That’s why I
don’t like these meets."
A noticeable lack of interest was displayed by most team members
throughout the meet. Aside from breaststroker Glenda Lueders
leading a cheer that involved beating kickboards against the
starting blocks and chanting U-C-L-A, no one seemed to acknowledge
the competition at all.
UCLA assistant coach Brad Burnham expected the laid-back
atmosphere to promote better performances as the big-meet pressure
was absent.
"I was expecting that if they were relaxed that someone might
pop off a really good swim, without all of the tension at Pac-10s,"
Burnham said. "But I guess it was too relaxed. They weren’t ready
to go as fast as they can go."