Swimmers dive headlong into new season
By Daily Bruin Staff
Oct. 26, 1994 9:00 p.m.
Swimmers dive headlong into new season
Young Bruins look to improve on seventh-place national
finish
By Scott Yamaguchi
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Standout underclassmen in the so-called world of "major" college
sports are often overcome by an itch to take their game to a higher
level, and apparently, the trend of leaving school early has
filtered into other sports  including swimming.
As a result, the 1994 UCLA women’s swimming team is being forced
to compete without Richelle Depold, who would have been a junior,
and who would have been the Bruins’ top returning swimmer. Depold,
the school record holder in the 50-yard freestyle, decided to put
school on hold for two years in order to pursue a dream of making
the 1996 Olympic team.
But don’t expect UCLA head coach Cyndi Gallagher to dwell on the
loss of her superstar. With a healthy crop of incoming freshmen
added to a solid core of returning swimmers, the seventh year head
coach is looking for nothing less than her seventh straight
top-seven finish at the NCAA Championships.
"The team has a really good chemistry, and there’s nobody who
really stands out," Gallagher said. "Everyone is contributing and
nobody really knows where they are yet, but that leaves a lot of
opportunities for people to step up. We lost a lot, but we got a
good class in."
At the head of the freshmen class will be high school
All-Americans Jill Jenkins, Lara Potter, Lindsay Etter and Cindy
Bertelink. Jenkins, who hails from Scottsdale, Ariz., swims the
sprint freestyle and backstroke events, while Potter concentrates
on the individual medley and backstroke events. Etter is a
breaststroker, and Bertelink is a distance freestylist.
In the Bruins season opening meet  a 158-140 loss to
Tennessee  Jenkins was victorious in both the 100 free and
100 butterfly, Potter was third in the 400 IM, Etter was second in
the 100 and 200 breast, and Bertelink was second in the 400 IM and
third in the 1,650 free.
"I think the recruiting class is a pretty well-kept secret,"
Gallagher said. "It might not show until January or February, but
the freshmen do what they’re told, they never miss practice,
they’re ready to learn and they’re positive  it’s great."
The newcomers will receive plenty of leadership, mainly because
UCLA returns seven seniors, four juniors and six sophomores from
the 1993 squad that finished seventh at the NCAA Championships.
The seniors, led by three-year All-American Natalie Norberg and
two-year All-American Megan Oesting, have collectively been named
team captains.
"The seniors are counted on for leadership more than ever, and
they’re giving it  that’s the great thing." Gallagher said.
"Sometimes seniors, even in swimming, check out and start counting
down the days until their last year is over. These guys are fired
up and they’re ready to lead."
Despite Depold’s absence, UCLA’s strongest swimmer could lie in
the junior class with Annette Salmeen. Salmeen, a two-year
All-American, returns after a summer in which she was a finalist in
the 200 free and 200 fly at the World Championship Trials.
"Annette Salmeen is on fire," Gallagher said. "She is the
biggest stud ever, and she’s going to be great this year. She’s
always been great, but she’s coming back with a lot of confidence
from how she swam this summer."
The Bruins also return a strong breaststroker in sophomore
All-American Glenda Lueders, and a solid freestylist in sophomore
Michelle Perry  UCLA’s last returning All-American.
In its fall schedule alone, seventh-ranked UCLA will face UC
Santa Barbara and South Carolina in a triangular meet, travel to
Dallas, Texas for the prestigious SMU Classic, return home for dual
meets against Arizona and Arizona State and then will be in Long
Beach in the first week of December for the Speedo Cup.
Not that the fall season means all that much to Gallagher,
however, who acquired the services of assistant coach Brad Burnham
over the summer. Burnham, who served as an assistant coach at
Colorado State the past two years and worked closely with American
record holder Amy Van Dyken, has provided a new approach to the
Bruins’ training regimen.
"Brad has his master’s degree in exercise physiology, so a lot
of the new stuff we’re doing is more science oriented," Gallagher
said. "It’s nice to have a new perspective, and the team is being
very open to the changes and they’re trusting. They’re like a bunch
of sponges, and it’s a pretty unique team in that they’re ready and
willing to learn and do things differently.
"I think all of the swimmers have a good sense that they’ve got
to be patient  that they might be successful early or they
might not be successful until January."
