Coach Cyndi Gallagher’s swim team has its work cut
out.
When the Bruins head to the Purdue Invitational this weekend at
West Lafayette, Ind., they will face competitive teams that have
already been training far longer than the Bruins.
Teams such as Virginia, Texas, Purdue, Florida and Michigan, are
on the semester system, which gives them an entire month longer of
practice time, perhaps even a bit more, than the Bruins.
Although opposing teams may seem to have an upper hand,
Gallagher feels that despite their advantage, the Bruins will close
the gap between these schools in time.
“The other teams have an advantage at this point of the
season,” Gallagher said. “But it doesn’t matter
what we do right now, it matters what we do in March.”
“The longer we swim together the better we get, and in the
end, it matters.”
With the notoriously late start of quarter-system schools, UCLA
is not allotted as much time in the beginning of the school year to
practice together before the season begins in comparison to other
schools.
What difference does a month of training together as a team
really make?
Only time will tell.
However, thus far the Bruins (2-0, 1-0 Pac-10) have been
successful recording wins over UC Santa Barbara and Oregon
State.
And when UCLA heads into this weekend’s meet it will
continue to expect to gain experience in the pool.
“This is their first real big competition,”
Gallagher said. “It’s exciting.”
As for the outlook for this season, despite losing six
All-American seniors from last year’s team, there is some new
talent to watch out for.
Two-time Olympian Nicolette Teo, who represented Singapore in
the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, joined the Bruins this
year.
Freshman Chiemi Yamamoto, who is from Japan, looks to be one of
the dominating freshman on the team.
As for the returning members of the team, Gallagher expects
junior Kim Vandenberg and sophomore Jane Imagane to put up some
fast times in this week’s competition.
At the diving end of the pool, co-captain Janine Strack and
juniors Amanda Blong and Paige Thompson will also make the trip to
Indiana this weekend.