Thursday, April 4, 1996
By A. CinQue Carter
Daily Bruin Contributor
With the spring quarter finally here, the swimming and diving
seasons have come to an end. After placing second at the Pacific-10
Championships to nine-time defending champion Stanford, the Bruins
were looking forward to making their mark at the NCAAs.
Unfortunately, the competition was too much for the Bruins
 who sent six swimmers and two divers. Though they did manage
to score more points than last year in the swim portion of the
meet, UCLA managed only an 11th place finish overall. This was the
first time the team has finished out of the top-10 in head coach
Cyndi Gallagher’s tenure.
Annette Salmeen  a 1996 Olympian  did win the 200
butterfly and senior Erin Simmons scored on both the 1-meter and
3-meter boards. Freshman Amy Sloan was 12th on the 1-meter.
Said Sophomore Lindsay Etter, "We’re proud of the way the season
turned out. We learned a lot that will make us a lot stronger next
year."
With Salmeen graduating, the leadership roles fall primarily on
this season’s sophomores.
"The junior class will start to take a little bit more control
(next year)," Etter said. "We’ll probably be leaders for the
freshmen coming in."
The highly touted freshmen include Southern California’s Amber
Wines, Northern California’s Jackie Castellano, Hawaii’s Keiko
Price, Oregon’s Eliza Werth, and eight others.
The team’s development exceeded expectations this year, despite
its youth.
"A lot of people got a lot of confidence as the season
progressed," Etter said. "The freshmen started to understand a
little bit more about collegiate competition."
As for the coaches, Gallagher and assistant coach Brad Burnham
will continue to do what they do best, motivate.
"We’re really lucky to have coaches that are so on top of
things," Etter said. "They pull things out of us that we don’t even
know are there. We owe a lot to (Gallagher) and Brad."
The divers competed at the Zone E the week before nationals to
determine who would represent the zone at the NCAAs. Out of five
possible spots, UCLA claimed two.
Tracy Wilcox and Rose Huelskamp were both runners-up at the
zone.
"Zone E was an excellent competition," Simmons said. "All divers
stepped up and competed really well. There was a strong Bruin
showing and we were really pleased. With two of us going to
nationals, we met and surpassed all goals of the season."
The Bruins won 10 of 14 meets this season. With Zone E scoring
three times at nationals, it will be able to send seven divers to
nationals next year.
"This year the competition was tough," Etter said. " It was the
best I’ve ever seen it. (Our performance) was really helped by the
swimmers cheering us on.
"As far as the season goes, we were really, really pleased."
FRED HE/Daily Bruin
Erin Simmons scored on the 1-meter and 3-meter boards.