LONG BEACH “”mdash; Despite a plethora of lifetime-best swims, NCAA B-cut times and a solid fourth-place finish, perhaps the best moments of the Pac-10 Championships for the UCLA women’s swim team came after the meet ended and all the commotion subsided.
When the team’s five seniors gathered after the meet to reflect on their careers, tears snuck into their eyes, and their voices cracked.
After an array of flowers and hugs for the seniors, coach Cyndi Gallagher began her post-meet speech. By the time she finished, the hundreds of fans who crowded the Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool had already vacated.
That left the enormous complex empty, as someone yelled “Last time!” before the team performed its final 8-clap of the season, which reverberated throughout the building long after the last “Fight!”
For four of the five seniors, Saturday was their last chance to race or do an 8-clap, after years of swimming and years at UCLA.
“This weekend was awesome,” senior Shannon Hackett said through sniffles. “Our class all stepped up and did great. “We all had so much fun and we all love each other so much ““ it was awesome.”
“We’ve been swimming all our lives and now what are we going to do?” senior Katherine Wong said.
Perhaps Hackett put it best when she was warming up with fellow senior Nicolette Teo Saturday morning.
“Today before we were warming up, they started playing “˜Don’t Stop Believin” by Journey,” Teo said. “That song has special meaning for my class. And it just hit me then. I was like “˜whoa!’ Katherine Wong loves that song and we always listen to it. I remember going down from the dorms in her car, windows rolled down, listening to that song. Shannon looked over at me and was like “˜full circle.'”
Indeed, even in the pool things went full circle. Many of the seniors swam lifetime bests that they had not touched since early in their careers. But perhaps the biggest impact the seniors had was serving as an example to the nine freshmen on the team.
“Our seniors did awesome, our freshmen did awesome, and everyone in between took the opportunity to race,” Gallagher said. “(The freshmen) stood up, but that’s because they had the upperclassmen supporting them and helping them. (The seniors) led the team as if (swimming in the Pac-10s) was no big deal. The freshmen said “˜If it’s no big deal for them, it’s no big deal for me.'”
As for the meet itself, the No. 15 Bruins finished in fourth with 938 points, to Pac-10 champion Arizona with 1,501 points. The Wildcats were followed closely by Stanford and Cal, each within 300 points of the title. All three of those teams are expected to make big splashes at the NCAAs, where Gallagher has picked Arizona to win it all.
According to coaches and players, every member of this UCLA squad achieved a lifetime-best time or a season-best time at some point over the four days of competition. The 800 freestyle A-relay team set the tone for the rest of the meet Wednesday night with a school-record time of 7:14.73, and the team never looked back.
“We swam great,” Gallagher said. “It was an incredibly fast meet. Everybody swam at least one great race, and for some people every race they swam was great.”
Yet at this year’s Pac-10s, even lifetime bests and NCAA B-cuts probably won’t qualify many Bruins for the NCAA Championships.
Partially because it is an Olympic year, times across the nation have been seconds faster than previous years, meaning the only way to guarantee a spot at NCAAs is to make the NCAA automatic qualifying A-cut time. The Pac-10s alone saw multiple meet, conference and national record times posted.
While there are many swimmers on the bubble, awaiting official cutoff times from the NCAA, only three, maybe four swimmers will keep swimming into March.
“We don’t have a lot of people going (to NCAAs) unfortunately,” Gallagher said. “It’s super fast this year. For some weird reason, you had to make an A-cut pretty much. We won’t know for about another week or so.
“Like Dani Milligan, that was a great swim for her in the 400 IM and she missed the A-cut by 0.01 second and I’m not sure if she’ll make it. Last year she would have made it by three seconds. It’s just a different year this year.”
The divers up in Federal Way, Wash. were led by junior Marisa Samaniego’s eighth-place finish on the 1 meter and seventh-place effort on the 3m. On platform, redshirt freshman Morgan Erpenbeck finished off an outstanding weekend with a personal record score of 253.35, good enough for a sixth-place finish.
Dive coach Tom Stebbins said he was most impressed by Erpenbeck’s performance.
“(The meet) certainly is not the way we planned or drew it up,” Stebbins said. “That was disappointing. But I think there were a lot of really good things. I think (the girls) all have things they can improve on between now and the time the NCAA Zone meet comes around. I think Morgan had probably the best meet of anyone. I think she (set a personal record) in every event.”
Teo, junior Anna Poteete, freshman Lauren Hall and possibly Milligan will represent UCLA at NCAAs in Columbus, Ohio in three weeks. They will be joined by any divers who fair well at the NCAA Zone E Championships around the corner. But for Teo, Pac-10s will always be full of special memories.
“It’s competitive, it’s fun, I love it and I’m going to miss it a lot,” Teo said.
WINN INJURED: During the 3m preliminary diving competition Friday night in Federal Way, Wash., freshman Laura Winn hit the upper part of her face on the board and was immediately taken to the local hospital for treatment.
Although she did not lose consciousness, Winn suffered cuts and facial fractures and had surgery Friday night. After observation, doctors determined Winn will need follow-up surgery that will take place later in the week. Winn will remain in Washington until she recovers and can fly to Los Angeles, which may not be for several weeks.
“Right now all our prayers and well wishes are with (Winn) and her family,” dive coach Tom Stebbins said. “It’s a really tough time. It was a pretty traumatic event for everyone there and involved. But medically she’s doing about as well as she can be. I talked with her mom (Sunday) morning; she’s got a little bit of her appetite back, some of the nausea is starting to pass, and the prognosis is very good.”