W. swim makes midseason roster adjustment
Noda returns after leave of absence;
injuries force Perry to call it a season
By Ross Bersot
The entrance to Men’s Gym Pool has been like a revolving door
lately, as the UCLA swim team welcomed the return of Mayuka Noda on
the heels of the untimely loss of Michelle Perry.
Perry, a sophomore freestyler, was one of three Bruin freshmen
to compete at the NCAA Championships in the 1993-94 season. She
earned honorable mention All-American status as part of the
ninth-place 200-yard freestyle relay team and was expected to be a
key element of the team’s success this year.
A rash of injuries prevented Perry from ever reaching 100
percent during the first half of the 1994-95 season. According to
UCLA head coach Cyndi Gallagher, she has been forced to end her
season due to complications from these injuries.
On the contrary, Noda is back in form after leaving the team
last season for personal reasons. The sophomore began practicing
with the team earlier this month and will return to competition at
the USC meet in February with hopes of qualifying for the
NCAAs.
"Mayuka is back on track," Gallagher said. "She kind of got
distracted but now she is focused and she has decided that she
really wants to go to school and she really wants to swim. She put
everything behind and she is on fire."
The addition of Noda bolsters the Bruin individual medley corps,
as she raced to school second-best times in both the 200 and 400 IM
as a freshman. She also earned a fourth-place finish in the 400 IM
and a seventh in the 200 IM at last year’s Pacific-10
Championships. Her times of 4:19.63 and 2:03.87 earned her NCAA
consideration qualification and are seconds faster than the top
UCLA times of this season.
"She did a get out swim for us last week and she went one of the
fastest 200 IM times we’ve had this whole season and that was at
the end of the week, at the end of a practice, so she is swimming
really fast," Gallagher said. "We’ll be counting on her to make
NCAAs and I think she can make it because that is the kind of
person that she is."
Noda needed little time to get back into competitive shape as
she trained with her club team while at home. This and the support
from her Bruin teammates made the transition an easy one.
"I wanted to come back really bad. I wanted to swim really bad
and I wanted to go to school. I wasn’t really happy being at home,
working and swimming for the club. I wanted to swim for college,"
Noda said. "I was only training once a day at home. I wasn’t in the
water for a while because I got sick, I had an ear infection. Then
I got in and I just got back in shape really quick.
"I’m totally happy. I’ve been swimming really, really good for
some reason. (The team) seems more casual this year. Like last year
was kind of a tight atmosphere but, this year it’s like everyone is
a lot of fun."
Bettering an outstanding freshman season will be her goal in the
pool.
* * *
UCLA diving is coming off of a team victory at the Bruin
Invitational, held at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center. Four Pac-10
teams participated, including Stanford, which will be the Bruins’
next opponent on Friday at Stanford.
Conspicuously missing from the Cardinal lineup for the Bruin
Invite was national team member Eileen Richetelli, who has reached
automatic NCAA qualifying point totals in the one- and three-meter
and the platform diving events.
Bruin diving coach Tom Scotty feels that the trio of junior Erin
Simmons and freshmen Tracy Wilcox and Rose Huelskamp can win
against the complete Stanford squad.
"With solid performances out of all three of them, there is a
possibility that we could outscore them in diving," Scotty
said.