UCLA kicks off season with dual wins

  ANNA AVIK Junior Geraldine Schick
competed in the freestyle event against Arizona Saturday.
UCLA 179 Arizona State 114 UCLA
159 Arizona 140

By Scott Schultz
Daily Bruin Contributor

The UCLA women’s swimming and diving team opened its
Pac-10 season with authority this past weekend by winning a pair of
dual meets at home against the Arizona State Sun Devils 179-114 and
the No. 1 ranked Arizona Wildcats 159-140.

“I think we all knew we could do it. I think the big thing
today was attitude,” said UCLA co-captain Jen Noddle.

The Bruins, who were 2-4 in Pac-10 competition last season, are
2-0 in conference dual meets this year and 4-0 overall.

UCLA controlled the entire meet against ASU on Friday, winning
the first five races and never looking back. The Bruins were led by
All-Americans, senior Beth Goodwin and sophomore Erin Zehntner,
along with star freshman Sara Platzer. Each won two individual
races. UCLA was also aided by Stacy Kearney, Leslie Hovsepian,
Kristen Lewis and Katie Winkelhaus, who have all accomplished
personal bests.

Against top-ranked Arizona, who competed without 2000 Olympian
Amanda Beard, the Bruins relied on their outstanding depth to stay
within striking distance of the Wildcats. After losing some close
races in the beginning of the meet, UCLA refused to fold.

At the end of seven events, trailing 73-58, the Bruins came out
of the break, focused and firing on all cylinders, winning seven of
the final nine races.

Meanwhile, at the USC Pool, where the divers were competing,
freshman Michelle Brown was winning both the one and three-meter
events for the Bruins.

UCLA was guided in their comeback victory with first place wins
by Platzer (50yd and 100yd freestyle,) Noddle (200yd breaststroke)
Goodwin (100yd butterfly) and freshman Brooke Winkler (400yd
individual medley.) Prior to the final race (200yd free relay), the
Bruins had clinched the win.

Noddle, who shaved over an entire second off her time from the
ASU meet, was excited about the teams’ strong showing this
weekend, but took the early victories in stride.

“I feel a difference from last year and even since the
beginning of this season,” she said. “Everybody has
such confidence in themselves and in each other right now.
I’ll have a grin on my face for a week.”

“We never once talked about winning the meet,” Bruin
head coach, Cyndi Gallagher said. “The door was open a little
bit because they just had a skeleton team here. The power of
numbers were with us.”

During the ASU meet, UCLA diver Regan Gosnell qualified for the
Zone E Diving Championships, which will be held in March. The next
day, while competing against Arizona, Michelle Brown also qualified
for the Zone Meet, joining fellow Bruin divers Gosnell and Anne
Baghramian, who qualified during last week’s victory against
San Diego.

Goodwin qualified for the NCAA Championships, when she won the
100yd butterfly in a nail-biter against Arizona with a time of
54.41 seconds.

“This is faster than I was all last season,” Goodwin
said. “After beating Stanford last year and Arizona today, I
feel like we’re going to get every Pac-10 team this
year.”

The divers’ next competition will be Thursday, when they
cross town to USC for the two-day Trojan Invitational.

The swimmers will travel to Evanston, Illinois this weekend for
the Northwestern Invitational.

The swimmers and divers return to Pac-10 competition on Jan. 26
when they visit Stanford.