Match against USD prep for big upcoming meets

  PATIL ARMENIAN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Junior
Lyndee Hovsepian, named All-American last year,
swims in the 200 meter breast stroke against UCSB Friday.
WOMEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING vs. Saturday, Nov.4
11 a.m. Swimming @ Men’s Gym Pool Diving @ ParkPool

By Amanda Fletcher
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

With dual Pac-10 meets just around the corner, the UCLA
women’s swim team will take on the University of San Diego
this Saturday in the Men’s Gym pool at 11 a.m.

The meet will provide one last chance for the Bruins to tune up
before taking on conference foes Arizona and Arizona State on
Friday, Nov. 10.

“We’re not great in November because of the way our
program works out,” head coach Cyndi Gallagher said of the
Bruins’ late September start. “It’s a little
frustrating because we don’t want to peak too early, but we
don’t want to lose either.”

Though UCLA isn’t at its full strength this early in the
season, the Bruins aren’t worried about the upcoming
meet.

As Gallagher puts it, USD is a “building program,”
meaning that the biggest competition for UCLA will be
themselves.

“I think intensity comes from inside our team,” said
Kristen Lewis, freshmen butterflyer.

Senior breaststroker Tracy Kinsch agreed.

“There are people in the pool from our team that will push
each other,” she said.

Instead of providing stiff competition, the upcoming meet
against the Toreros serves other functions.

For the upperclassmen, the meet is a welcome break from a
rigorous training schedule.

“We swim upperclassmen in new events so they can have a
new challenge,” Gallagher said. “We do a lot of
training, so it’s a nice break to race.”

As for the freshmen, Saturday marks only their second meet of
the year, so they’ll still be settling in.

“It takes us a little while to learn everything,
especially for the freshmen,” Gallagher said.

While the upperclassmen get to spice up their lives, the
newcomers will be looking to prove themselves in the pool.

“We try to have everyone swim different events just for
variety,” Gallagher said. “Freshmen don’t have
that luxury. I need to see what they’re good at and how I can
make it better.”

But just because the Toreros aren’t No. 1, don’t
think that the Bruins will take it easy.

“We can’t go in lackadaisical,” Gallagher
said. “Every race, we’re prepared.

“We definitely don’t have the level of intensity
that we will in two weeks, but we try to have an inner lever of
intensity all the time.”

This inner intensity is what led 21 out of 32 Bruins to improve
upon their season best times in last week’s meet against UC
Santa Barbara.

“I think you set goals for yourself before a race so you
already have goals and you push yourself,” Kinsch said.

With motivation like this, the Bruins appear well on their way
to another successful season.