W. swim faces Tennessee at home in season opener
By Daily Bruin Staff
Oct. 20, 1994 9:00 p.m.
W. swim faces Tennessee at home in season opener
By Scott Yamaguchi
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The seventh-ranked UCLA women’s swimming team will receive an 11
a.m. visit from Tennessee Saturday at the Men’s Gym Pool, and UCLA
head coach Cyndi Gallagher is taking a rather indifferent approach
to the meet.
"We could win this meet or we could lose, and it doesn’t really
matter to me," Gallagher said. "That’s the difference between this
year and years past. We’re doing so many different things this year
that it’s going to take time, so I don’t expect us to be great
until January, February and definitely in March."
For now, Gallagher’s main focus lies on compensating for the
loss of seven seniors from a 1993-94 team that finished seventh at
the 1993 NCAA Championships in March. To make things worse, the
Bruins will be without sprinter Richelle Depold, who would have
been a junior this year but opted to take two years off from school
to train with the U.S. national residence squad at the Olympic
Training Center in Colorado Springs.
Still, UCLA boasts a solid core of returning All-Americans, and
the Bruins will also benefit from a strong recruiting class. In
fact, Gallagher’s roster consists of 14 freshmen, six sophomores,
four juniors and seven seniors.
Tennessee returns 18 swimmers from last year’s squad, which
finished 14th at NCAAs, but Saturday’s meet will be the first dual
meet ever between the two schools, and Gallagher knows little about
the Volunteers.
"I really don’t know too much about Tennessee," she said. "They
have great divers, and their two big stars are Nicole deMan and
Leslie Mix."
deMan, a sprinter, is among the best in the nation, and Mix
finished second last year in the 500-yard freestyle at NCAAs.
UCLA will be led by All-Americans Natalie Norberg, Annette
Salmeen, Glenda Lueders and Michelle Perry, and should have enough
depth to win the meet.
"We don’t have people who can be counted on to win every time,"
Gallagher said, "but we have three people that could win.
"That makes it exciting, and that provides a big opportunity for
a lot of people."
