The long-standing rivalry between three Pac-10 schools ““
UCLA, California and Stanford ““ has the Bruin swimming and
diving teams geared up for this weekend as they prepare to compete
against their two biggest rivals this Friday and Saturday,
respectively.
UCLA will be competing against top swimmers such as
Stanford’s 2004 Olympian Dana Kirk. The Bruins have defeated
Stanford in the past, a difficult feat accomplished by only a few
schools.
“We’ve beaten them twice, which is pretty
exciting,” UCLA coach Cyndi Gallagher said. “Both
schools recruit the same girls, so I know how good they are because
I recruited those girls.”
The Bruins have had a history of defeats where the outcomes of
the meets have always come down to the last event. So far, UCLA has
lost three consecutive seasons to Cal, with each meet always
finishing in a nail-biter relay.
Both the meets are scheduled to take place at UCLA, which gives
the Bruins a huge home advantage, especially for the divers.
Head coach Tom Stebbins contends that both the Cardinals and the
Bears will have a tough time adjusting to the lack of rickety
stands and cloudy weather his girls are accustomed to.
“It’s nice that we don’t have to travel and
it’s nice having your own bed to sleep in,” Stebbins
said.
“You have a set program and routine you can really follow
comfortably because you’re here.”
Co-captain Eileen Seissen, on the other hand, feels that the
presence of fellow Bruins will propel her to swim even faster.
“The atmosphere at home can never be duplicated at an away
meet,” Seissen said.
“You can have people off-campus walk in and watch and that
gives it more of an adrenaline rush because you want to perform for
your school.”
Although a rivalry exists between UCLA and the other two
schools, the swimmers are still very friendly with each other.
Several of the Bruins even have friends from high school and
club teams that they will be competing against at the meet against
Stanford.
Co-captain Liz Keating will be competing against her club
teammate from high school.
“It’ll be exciting,” Keating said. “I
always trained with her in high school. She’s really tough
and really fast, so it always pumps me up.”
Not only will this meet serve as a checkpoint for both the
swimmers and the divers, it will also signify the beginning of the
end of the season as the teams compete in their last few meets
before the Pac-10 Championships.