ANNA AVIK Kristen Tinney swims a
freestyle race earlier this season. The Bruins will go to The
Speedo Cup in Texas this weekend.
By Calley Prezzano
Daily Bruin Contributor
The No. 1 UCLA women’s swim team will divide and head to
two different meets this weekend. One group will go to the Texas
Invitational in Austin, Texas, along with the diving team, and the
other will go to The Speedo Cup in Long Beach.
The swimming team made an amazing jump to the top spot in the
nation from last year’s final standing at No. 8. Head coach
Cyndi Gallagher has never thought too much of standings, “but
maybe that’s because we have never been ranked this
high,” she said.
When asked how they can keep their ranking, she simply said,
“We’ll just do what we can do.” And even if the
team does not end the season being No. 1, Gallagher knows that this
poll “got (the team) to believe that we can be No.
1.”
The Texas Invitational will be scored, but Gallagher is not
concerned about getting points.
WOMEN’S SWIMMING Speedo Cup
Nov. 30-Dec.2 Long Beach, CA All Day Texas
Invitational Dec. 1-3 Austin, TX All Day Original by ADAM
BROWN/Daily Bruin Web Adaptation by TODD SHINTANI “Swimming
fast, best times and race strategies are more important that if we
win the meet or not,” she said. According to Gallagher, the
Bruins who qualified for Olympic trials or are at the level to
qualify for NCAAs are competing in Texas. But Gallagher realizes
that it may be too early in the season to swim that fast.
At Texas the team will swim against squads like No. 4 Stanford
and No. 5 Cal, who are in their prime right now. UCLA will be able
to scope out the top competition they will be dealing with this
season. The squad will also compete against teams like Arizona and
Wisconsin, who have been training since August and are now prepared
to swim at a high level.
Although UCLA has been training only three months at school, the
Bruins do not feel unprepared.
“We’re there to swim our own races,” freshman
Brooke Winkler said. As for being ranked No. 1 in the nation,
Winkler isn’t intimidated or worried.
“It made us excited about what we’re capable
of,” she added.
Even senior Beth Goodwin and true freshman Sara Platzer, who
have already qualified to swim at NCAAs, will have to race hard
this weekend. According to Gallagher, the NCAA takes the top 20 to
25 swimmers in each event, so someone can be dropped anytime in the
season if another swimmer clocks in a faster time.
“If someone swims a last minute “˜ditch meet,’
our girl could be out of her spot,” Gallagher said.
“We’ll just have to go fast.”
Gallagher knows the team’s potential and is confident in
her swimmers’ capabilities. Since the team only started
training in September, UCLA’s only weakness against the other
teams will be the amount of training time. While No. 12 Wisconsin,
No. 7 USC and No 3 Arizona are at their peak now, UCLA will just
keep getting faster and faster as the season progresses, according
to Gallagher.
“Each month we get faster,” she said.
“We’re fast in December. We’ll be fast in
February, and even faster in March.”
Joining the team in Texas will be the UCLA women’s diving
squad, which has not competed in several weeks. Three of the
divers, senior Anne Baghramian, sophomore Regan Gosnell and true
freshman Michelle Brown, have already qualified for the NCAA Zone E
Meet. The goal for the other divers, including junior Chrissie
Amorosia and sophomore Jen McNally, will be to join their teammates
in qualifying. At the Zone E Meet, the top finishers will qualify
to compete in diving NCAAs.
The other half of the swimming squad will compete in Long Beach
against local powerhouses like Cal State Northridge and Long Beach
State. Led by junior Emily Melina and true freshmen Katie
Winkelhaus and Kristen Tinney, these Bruins also have the pressure
of a first place ranking on their shoulders. However, assistant
coach Susan Trainer thinks that the ranking, will only give them
incentive to do well.
“We’re lucky in the fact that it gives the girls a
lot of confidence,” she said. “It shows that they can
beat the best on any day.”
According to Trainer, being able to race against impressive
teams like rival USC will only be motivation for the Bruins to swim
faster.
“They’ve been training for several months, training
hard,” she said. “We’ll see what they
do.”