Friday, January 29, 1999
UCLA looks to make splash in Bay Area
PREVIEW: Bruin squad refuses to be intimidated by Stanford’s
reputation
By Steve Kim
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Pair the No. 17 Bruins against the No. 2 Stanford team, and then
against the No. 7 Cal squad, and one would predict the Bruins are
plunging into a lose-lose situation.
Not so fast. The UCLA women’s swimming and diving team does not
roll over and play dead for any team, head coach Cyndi Gallagher
said.
"They definitely have the advantage, highly ranked and swimming
in their home meet," Gallagher said of Stanford and Cal. "But I
know we’ll fight all the way to the end."
As the Bruins travel up north for the successive weekend meets,
they are blocking out the who’s and concentrating on the how’s.
"We are so focused on the season and we often re-focus on what
our plan is," Gallagher said, "which is to swim faster and faster
as the season goes on. We just have to mentally prepare to do our
best. I’m sure we’ll swim better than we have been."
Stanford is the perennial national championship team. With that
in mind, it’s important for the Bruins to keep themselves from
becoming distracted. They must ignore the competitor’s reputation
and maintain their focus on the individuals.
For example, Stanford’s Misty Hyman is last year’s NCAA champion
in the 100-yard butterfly. While racing with the best can be quite
intimidating, sophomore butteflyer Beth Goodwin is not the least
bit hesitant.
"I am looking forward to this so much," Goodwin said. "I’ve been
looking for a challenge like this all year. I finally get to have
some competition."
One thing which is always crucial is to concentrate on
maintaining good form and technique, even under racing pressures.
Once that is accomplished, the Bruin swimmers say they have a good
chance against the Golden Bears, who narrowly beat them in last
year’s dual meet.
"It’s all about technique right now," Goodwin said. "We want to
swim correctly. If we do everything we’re supposed to do, I think
we can beat Cal."
Three UCLA divers have made the NCAA regional cut. Having
accomplished that goal could have made them complacent. But seeing
some tough competition at a recent invitational opened their eyes
and got them determined to train harder.
"We’re starting to get serious now," sophomore diver Delilah
More said. "We had a bad meet a couple of weeks ago and that got us
focused. We had some good competition and we got to see who was out
there. Now we’re fired up to give it our best shot this weekend
against Cal and Stanford."
The Bruins have the attitude, and whether they will carry their
mentality through these meets is to be seen after the weekend.
"It will be all positive whether we win or lose," Gallagher
said. "It’s going to be cold and windy up there but we’re still
going to swim fast. If we have to get some wins out of that, that’s
great, but long as we swim fast at the end, that’s what
counts."
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