Bruins voted No. 1 teams in national polls from CSCAA

  ANNA AVIK Junior Katie Younglove swims
in the 200-yard butterfly against Arizona State University at a
meet earlier this month.

By Scott Schultz
Daily Bruin Contributor

The UCLA women’s swimming and diving team was voted the
No. 1 team in the nation according to the most recent College
Swimming Coaches Association of America poll, released
Thursday.

It’s the first time in the 26-year history of the
women’s swimming program that the Bruins have held the No. 1
position in the national polls.

“It feels good to be ranked No. 1, but we’ve never
been a team that looks at the polls,” said UCLA head swim
coach Cyndi Gallagher. “It’s still early in the year,
but it’s great for the team to see it and feel good thinking
it’s possible to end No. 1.”

The Bruins, who were undefeated Pac-10 champions for four years
between 1974-75 through 1977-78, reached their peak position in the
national rankings at No. 2 in 1975-76.

The swimmers, who finished last season at No. 8, leaped 10
places in the polls after a pair of decisive victories against No.
16 Arizona State and the previously top-ranked Arizona.

This weekend the UCLA women’s swimming and diving team
showed they can back up their No. 1 ranking when they traveled to
Evanston, Ill. and handily won the Northwestern Invitational,
defeating Northwestern, South Carolina and Ohio State.

“It felt really good to beat Northwestern, because they
beat us last year,” said Katie Younglove.

Gallagher was pleased with the victory, but she considers the
three-day invitational a training experience for the Pac-10 and
NCAA championships, which will be held in March.

“They had a lot of swimming this weekend, and you could
see the freshmen tiring toward the end, but this will prepare them
for the long meets like the Pac-10 and NCAA’s,”
Gallagher said.

At the invitational, the Bruins led the event from start to
finish. The relay teams swept all five races, including a victory
in the 800-yard freestyle relay when freshman Sara Platzer erased
Northwestern’s five second lead in the final leg of the
race.

Platzer also won first place in three individual races (200yd,
100yd and 50yd free). Senior Beth Goodwin won two races (100yd and
200yd butterfly) and sophomore LeAnne Cadag won the 100yd
backstroke. Gallagher singled out sophomores Cadag, Erica Shugart
and Erin Zehntner for their performances at Northwestern.
“They were good freshmen, but they are even better
sophomores,” she said.

UCLA’s divers swept both the 1-meter and 3-meter diving
events, with sophomore Regan Gosnell taking first, senior Anne
Baghramian taking second and freshman Michelle Brown taking third
in both events. Gosnell’s scores in the 3m diving (511.65)
set a new pool record, breaking the old record by 35 points.

“She probably had the best meet of her career,” said
UCLA head diving coach Tom Stebbins. “She did a great job. At
this point, she’s developed into the athlete that we thought
she could be when we brought her here.”

While the Bruins were busy in Illinois, half the diving team was
at USC at the Trojan Invitational. Freshman Kasey Reinhard was
sixth in the 1m, and sophomore Jennifer McNally was seventh in the
3m.