Squad hopes to execute changes, win

  COURTNEY STEWART The No. 2 ranked womens’ swim and diving
team will take on Washington State and UCSD this weekend.

By Calley Prezzano
Daily Bruin Contributor

The No. 2 UCLA women’s swimming and diving team will be
matched up against the Washington State Cougars and UCSD Tritons
this Saturday.

While the divers will have to compete off campus at the Rose
Bowl Aquatic Center, the swimmers’ last home meet of the
season will be at the Men’s Gym pool. Both meets will begin
at 11 a.m.

As the swimmers face their first meet in six weeks, they are
excited to get in the pool and race again. The squad is confident,
but the Bruins can’t let their guard down during the low
stress meet.

“Both (Washington State and UCSD) are much better than
they were last year,” UCLA head coach Cyndi Gallagher said.
“We still have to swim as a No. 1 team.”

Washington State has strong swimmers from countries outside the
United States, such as freshman Taryn Ternent of South Africa and
sophomore Melissa Hubley, freshmen Andree-Anne LeRoy and Sasha
Taylor from Canada, while UCSD has a talented young distance
squad.

As for the Bruins, they spent the fall quarter finessing and
making changes on technique.

“Now,” Gallagher said, “it’s time to
execute those changes.”

According to Gallagher, the workouts over the winter break were
some of the best ever. A priority was to keep the girls healthy
while practicing outside in the cold weather, and the caution paid
off when the training showed impressive results.

“They were swimming as fast as they had all season and
that was encouraging,” Gallagher said.

The squad’s various members will be aiming for different
goals at Saturday’s meet since attaining NCAA Championship
qualifying marks is not the primary objective.

“We’ll have to swim tough,” freshman Brooke
Winkler said.

Along with Winkler, who has qualified in the 400-yard IM, eight
other swimmers have already made the NCAA “A” cut.
Seniors Beth Goodwin (100-yd butterfly and 200-yd fly), Brighid
Dwyer (100-yd backstroke) and Julia Voitovitsch (100-yd fly),
juniors Lyndee Hovsepian (200-yd breaststroke) and Katie Younglove
(100-yd butterfly), freshman Sarah Platzer (50-yd freestyle, 100-yd
free and 200-yd free), and sophomores LeAnne Cadag and Erica
Shugart (joining Hovsepian and Goodwin in the 200- yd medley relay)
will also be racing at NCAA Championships in March.

For the meet this weekend, each individual will get to choose in
which events she wants to compete ““ a strategy Gallagher
seldom uses.

“We won’t be swimming “˜off’ events just
more events,” Gallagher said.

“Instead of three, a girl may swim four, or even five
races, some unofficial.”

On the other hand, some girls will swim their best events, and
try to make the travel team. With over 30 swimmers on the squad, it
is hard to decide exactly who gets to swim at each meet. For the
Pac-10 Conference, which takes place at the end of February, UCLA
can take only 20 swimmers along with the diving squad. For away
meets against teams like Stanford and Cal, UCLA can only bring 19
swimmers and three divers.

Still, the immediate task at hand is to perform well this
weekend.

“We’re in great shape,” she said. “Now
it’s time to race.”