On the first Monday after break, a day of first classes for the
winter quarter, three freshmen divers practice together at Sunset
Canyon Recreation Center pool to prepare for the Indiana University
Invitational this weekend. They take turns doing drills off the
board that help fine tune their dives for future competitions.
After each dive, the girls look out of the water at coach Tom
Stebbins for critiques and encouragement. Marisa Samaniego says
“good job” to her teammate Brittany Hill who succeeded
in correcting a dive with which she was previously struggling.
“This is the fun part of the season ”“ when a
lot of the hard work is done, and we are just fine tuning the dives
and making the appropriate adjustments,” Stebbins said.
Similar to gymnasts, divers must pay special attention to detail
because they are judged from the moment the dive begins until
landing in the water.
When the girls head to the home of the Hoosiers for the weekend,
they will be led by U.S. Diving Senior National Team member Paige
Thompson and redshirt junior Sara Clark. Freshmen Samaniego, Hill
and Tess Schofield, who fared well at tournaments such as the USC
Invitational during fall quarter, will also compete for the
Bruins.
“Indiana has a very, very good and competitive
program,” Stebbins said. “The meet will be a great
opportunity because there will be a lot of diving and a lot of
competing.”
The team practiced until Dec. 22, 2005 and then returned on Jan.
2 to UCLA for training. Now Stebbins feels the girls are in a
really good spot heading into the second half of their season.
“The girls trained well over break. I am really
pleased,” Stebbins said.
Swimming
After a grueling, yet fun couple of weeks training together over
winter break, the swim team is relieved to participate in some
exciting meets. Last weekend, UCLA and Purdue met for the first
time ever in a dual meet competition. Although the teams swam the
traditional 16 order of events, the meet had an unusual format.
“We divided up our team and their team to swim together,
so it was not a formal meet,” senior Kim Vandenberg said.
Each team split into “blue” and “black”
squads for the meet, with half of UCLA’s swimmers competing
with half of Purdue’s swimmers.
“The meet was a chance for our team to race since we have
not had a chance to race in [about] a month,” Vandenberg
said. The senior has already qualified for the March NCAA
championships in the 200 free, 200 fly and 100 fly.
Now the team prepares for Saturday’s meet against
University of the Pacific, where the Bruins’ former assistant
coach, Greg Meehan, recently became head coach.
Meehan served as Vandenberg’s assistant coach during her
first three years on the team.
“I have written to him a few times,” Vandenberg
said. “It should be good to see Greg. He seems to be doing
great with his new program.”
During winter break, the squad worked out together almost every
day and bonded in the context of team dinners and activities.
“When we practiced during break it was all day and after
swimming we would do weights and running. We cross-train a lot. I
wasn’t used to running for my high school swim team, and I
don’t think a lot of girls on the team were. [Here] you
definitely get in shape,” Vandenberg said.
Although over 10 girls from the Bruin squad have qualified for
the NCAA Championships to be held in Athens, Ga., they will
continue trying to qualify all of the relays. Upcoming meets
against three Pac-10 teams and the Pac-10 Championships in late
February give the team good opportunities to obtain more
qualifications.
The Bruins will host Pacific at the Student Activity Center pool
at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday.