Younglove excels in pool, school
By Daily Bruin Staff
March 14, 2001 9:00 p.m.
 UCLA Sports Information Junior Katie
Younglove is known for her extreme dedication, both to the
UCLA swimming and diving team and to her academics.
By Scott Schultz
Daily Bruin Contributor
When it comes to being a dedicated student-athlete, junior
swimmer Katie Younglove is proficient enough to teach a seminar on
the subject.
In the four years that the swimming and diving team has given
out the award for Most Dedicated Athlete, Younglove has won the
award three times. This season she added the Student-Athlete Award
as well.
Younglove is dedicated to fulfilling the expectations of a UCLA
student-athlete.
As a swimmer, she has improved her times in each of her three
seasons. She has earned All-American accolades for the butterfly
and her contributions to the relay teams twice. She is expecting to
win the honors again this season.
“She is a quiet leader,” UCLA Head Coach Cyndi
Gallagher said. “She doesn’t swim particularly fast in
season, but at the NCAAs she always rises to the
occasion.”
“I don’t think she has missed five practices in her
three years,” Gallagher added.
As a student, Younglove has earned a hearty 3.8 GPA despite
maintaining a grueling two-a-day practice schedule, and hopes to
attend architecture school after she graduates.
“Katie has mastered time management. She has her papers
and school work done in advance,” Bruin co-captain Brighid
Dwyer said. “She focuses on something and gets it
done.”
The objective of balancing both obligations requires intensive
amounts of energy to succeed. Younglove acknowledges that sometimes
it can be difficult.
“This week I haven’t even thought about the
championship meet,” Younglove said. “I’ve had so
much work to catch up on and then to get ahead.”
For Younglove “getting ahead” means turning in term
papers a week early and faxing final exams from the road. She says
that the professors are typically supportive, provided they are
approached early in the semester.
“I tell my professors during the first week of classes the
dates that I will be on the road,” Younglove said. “You
definitely don’t want to tell them at 10th week.”
Her teammates believe that it is her ability to organize all her
various tasks that allows her to achieve on such a high level.
“Katie has this schedule, and she just sticks to it
without deviating an inch from her plan,” teammate and former
roommate Beth Goodwin said. “She is one of the most focused
people any of us know.”
Younglove’s parents are also dedicated to the UCLA
swimmers. They drive all the way from their residence in Sacramento
for every home meet.
It was Younglove’s father who first discovered the scoring
glitch at the Pac-10 Championships that enabled the Bruins to win
their first conference title. When the Pac-10s took place on Feb.
24, UCLA originally took second behind Arizona. Younglove’s
father figured out that the computer had forgotten to include the
scores of divers who placed from ninth to 24th, where all of the
Bruin divers had placed.
“He called me when we got home, and he said, “˜I
think you guys would have won if they counted the diving,”
Younglove said. “I think he put it on a spreadsheet and
everything.”
Although Younglove takes her academics and post-graduate goals
seriously, she says that winning the Pac-10 championship has been
her most rewarding experience at UCLA.
“Winning Pac-10 meant more to me than either of the
quarters where I achieved a 4.0 GPA,” Younglove said.
“Pac-10 is special because it was a whole team effort, and we
could all celebrate together. Grades are individual.”
One irony involving Younglove’s two 4.0 quarters is that
they both occurred during the winter when the swim season occurs,
so she has been able to achieve the most success when she has been
at her busiest.
Younglove’s positive influence on her teammates is an
important reason why the swimming and diving team has the highest
GPA of UCLA teams with more than 30 athletes. Her influence is also
one of the reasons the team is entering the NCAAs as Pac-10
champions.
She keeps a watchful eye on the freshmen, especially on the
road, and her work habits have rubbed off on the veteran swimmers
as well.
“I would see how much time she’d put toward her
school, and it definitely impacted me,” Goodwin said.
“My grades have improved since I lived with her.”
Regardless of how Younglove and her teammates perform at the
NCAAs this weekend, upon her return to Los Angeles, she will be
focused on her final exams and preparing for next season.
“I hope to experience all there is to do while I’m
at UCLA,” Younglove said. “I want to make the most of
my time here, and not miss anything. There’s a lot to do at
UCLA.”
