Bruins train hard, hold dreams of top 10

Thursday, January 15, 1998

Bruins train hard, hold dreams of top 10

SWIMMING: Coaching, senior leadership help Bruins stroke their
best

By Steve Kim

Daily Bruin Contributor

"We do a lot of preparation," explains UCLA women’s swimming
head coach Cyndi Gallagher. "We work on details and race strategy,
so when they get up on the racing block, they’re confident and they
can just swim. We don’t really worry about the end results; that
will happen."

It is 4:30 in the afternoon at the Men’s Gym pool. Contrary to
the name of the facility, this is one of the pools in which the
Bruin women’s swimming team practices and competes. After two and a
half hours, and a couple more hours in the early morning, the team
is done practicing for the day.

"Okay everyone," announces Gallagher, "it’s time to go."

But no one’s budging. There are still techniques to perfect –
starts, entries, strokes, turns and all.

One more announcement. Concurrently, members of the women’s
water polo team trickle in and wait for the pool to be vacant for
their practice session. "Everybody out," repeats Gallagher, as if
she’s said that so many times over the season – over her 10
seasons, actually, as Bruin head coach. No hard feelings: The
swimmers finally exit.

It is this kind of dedication and perfectionism that
characterizes the women’s swim team. They’re focused and they’re
ready to race. After all, they’re halfway through their season. So
far so good. Although the UCLA women’s swimming team is currently
ranked No. 14 in the nation, Gallagher says the team usually breaks
the top ten by the end of the season, since swimming is a sport
where athletes improve over time and with training.

Swimming, as a collegiate team sport, is a rather tricky affair,
where mixed emotions come with every meet. Each placing in a race
contributes points to the team score, and relays are worth twice
the point value to emphasize the team aspect of swim meets. Thus,
even if a team loses, there’s still a feeling of success from
individual wins and best times.

Such individual success has put swimmers such as senior Linsay
Etter and sophomore Keiko Price in the top five times list in
women’s collegiate swimming this season to date.

Etter is currently fourth and fifth in the 100 and 200
breaststroke, respectively, and Price turned in the second and
fourth fastest times in the 50 and 200 freestyle.

Other high performers include long distance swimmer Cindy
Bertelink, butterflyers Jill Jenkins (also a backstroker) and Beth
Goodwin, breaststroker Amber Wines and backstroker Amanda Hall.

Apparently, changes in assistant coaches have not hindered the
Bruins in their swimming success. It is at an unexpected time that
second-year assistant coach Byron Davis put aside coaching to train
for the 2000 Olympic Games.

Davis, who barely missed a 1996 Olympics spot in the 100
butterfly after training with the Resident National Team, with the
likes of Amy Van Dyken, Jon Olsen and Summer Sanders, returned to
his alma mater to assist the Bruins last season. Not wanting to
give up the chance of making the Sydney Games, Davis went back to
training while doing motivational speaking and writing a sports
psychology book titled "Acting with Impact."

Coach Gallagher comments, "I think it’s good that he’s following
his dreams."

Replacing Davis is Brad Burnham, who is returning to Westwood
after coaching a year in Colorado. He has previously assisted
Gallagher for two and a half years, and feels right at home at the
Men’s Gym pool deck. Burnham says he’s glad to be back working with
the Bruins.

According to Gallagher, changes in coaches during the season
have not been a problem. In fact, she looks forward to the rest of
the season, especially in developing her freshman swimmers.

"The freshman have been fun," says Gallagher. "They’re very
‘green,’ meaning they don’t have a lot of experience, but they’re
enthusiastic and willing to learn and just do whatever I tell them.
They’re really excited to be a part of UCLA and its
excellence."

The maturity and experience of the eight seniors definitely
help.

"The leadership with the seniors is great," Gallagher said. "All
of them are good at something. That’s really good with the freshmen
because they’re suddenly in UCLA with all these hard swim meets. So
the seniors really help. You know, success breeds success."

Yes, the swimmers are well prepared, well focused, and they want
to win. As they refine and fine tune, they anticipate the rest of
the season, which includes formidable home matches against,
Stanford, Cal and USC, the Pac-10s and the NCAAs: They’re all big
meets.

Gallagher is enthusiastic and optimistic about the coming
events.

"We’ve got a lot of great racing to do, and I think this team is
very confident. They’re very relaxed, focused and prepared," she
said. "They know what they need to do, and we’ve communicated that
to them. We’re like on auto pilot, and they’re just waiting for the
time for them to swim fast."

That time will come next weekend. Until then, the pool will
likely be very busy and very occupied.Daily Bruin File Photo

Sophomore Rosalind Dunn swims the freestyle in a meet last
year.