Bruins aim to regain title, glory from USC

By Calley Prezzano
Daily Bruin Contributor

The No. 6 UCLA women’s swim and dive team will face its
crosstown rival at USC Friday for the last dual meet of the
season.

The Trojans have won the meet for the past eight years, but UCLA
won the eight before that.

“Now comes the turning of the tide,” Bruin diving
coach Tom Stebbins said. “We want the title ““ the city
title.”

Although the meet is away, the Bruins are not discouraged. The
UCLA pool has been unavailable, so the divers have been practicing
at USC, and have become comfortable there.

“It’s a really nice pool,” sophomore Beth
Boehm said. “And it’s a really fast pool.”

“We’ll beat them on their own territory,”
freshman Sara Platzer said.

On Friday the swimmers will not be racing the clock, but the
competition. USC has an impressive line-up to beat. Although the
team is weaker than UCLA in the sprints, sophomores Jennifer
Parmenter (freestyle/individual medley) and Asa Sandlund (distance
freestyle) have been competing extraordinarily well this year and
will be tough opposition.

“We aren’t concerned with times so much,”
sophomore Leanne Cadag said. “We want to race to score points
and win.”

Leading the USC dive squad will be junior All-American Kellie
Brennan and freshman Nicci Fusaro. UCLA’s senior Anne
Baghramian beat Brennan at the Bruin Invite, but fell second to
Fusaro.

According to the UCLA swimmers, the teams are matched up fairly
evenly.

“It will come down to who has the longer
fingernails,” Boehm predicted. “It’s going to be
so close.”

For some Bruins, this meet is going to be their last one of the
season.

“They’ve worked so hard,” Boehm said.
“It’s really important to those who are tapered, and
rested.”

“It’s the dual meet of the year,” senior Tracy
Kinsch said. “But more importantly, it’s our last meet
as a team.”

Having won the Texas Invitational and beaten Arizona, the team
has come a long way from last year.

“In years past, we were a team that could just be rolled
over,” Stebbins said. “Now we can drive (the other
team) to be at their best in order to beat us.”

Even though some of the Bruins are friends with USC swimmers,
the friendship ends when the meet starts. Last year, USC hung a
bear over the pool deck, and the Trojans who walked by would tap it
for luck.

“When they step on the pool deck, you can feel the
tension,” Cadag said.

The UCLA swimmers have been preparing for the meet not only
through physical training, but also by means of team events and
bonding during their own “Beat ‘SC Week.” In
addition to making inspirational quotes and gifts, UCLA alumni have
been speaking to the Bruins to get them ready.

“The team stuff this week is to get us fired up,”
Cadag said.

Along with intra-squad support, the Bruins are counting on
spectators to attend the meet and cheer on the team.

“Last year the band came out when it was at UCLA,”
Boehm said. “This year we are still counting on a lot of
people driving downtown for the event.”

The meet starts at 1 p.m. and will take place at the
McDonald’s Swim Complex on the USC campus.