Bruin digest

Women’s swimming and diving off to strong start
with solid performances Anchored by individual victories
from Kim Vandenberg and Paige
Thompson, the UCLA women’s swimming and diving team
finished fourth at the Purdue Invitational this past Saturday. The
Bruins, who finished with 488 points, received good efforts from
their divers. Thompson won the three-meter diving competition, and
Amanda Blong and Janine Strack
also earned NCAA Zone qualifier marks. “I’m so proud of
these three divers and it was a great way to start our season
off,” diving coach Tom Stebbins said in a
statement. “I’m encouraged with the performances and
although we made some errors in our dives, as the season
progresses, we will only get better.” Meanwhile, in the pool,
Vandenberg won both the 100m butterfly and 200m butterfly. She led
a group that had 12 swimmers place in the top-10 in their events.
Sophomore Katie Arnold’s third-place finish
in the 100m backstroke was the best individual result for a Bruin
other than Vandenberg or Thompson. The Bruins’ success in
individual races was also evident in their relays. The 200-medley
team, composed of Arnold, Eileen Seissen,
Vandenberg and Amy Thurman captured third place,
as did the 800-freestyle relay team with Vandenberg, Katie
Nelson, Jane Imagane and Shannon
Hackett. Yet it was the 400m-medley relay, in which the
Bruins placed fourth, that was most indicative of the meet. The
three schools finishing ahead of the Bruins in that race ““
Texas, Texas A&M and Florida ““ were the teams that
finished ahead of the Bruins in the meet overall. Florida took
first place overall with 748 points. The Bruins will next compete
in a dual meet at the University of San Diego this Friday before
coming home for meets against Arizona State and Arizona the
following weekend.

TENNIS: A host of Bruins competed in multiple
tournaments throughout the weekend. At the ITA National Indoor
Championships, Benjamin Kohlloeffel lost to
Stanford’s Sam Warburg in the quarterfinals,
6-3, 6-3. Meanwhile, on the women’s side, freshman
Riza Zalameda fell to Washington’s
Dea Sumantri in the Round of 16, 4-6, 7-6 (0),
7-5. Zalameda had greater success in doubles, where she paired with
sophomore Daniela Bercek to reach the semifinals
before falling to eventual champions Audra Cohen
and Cristelle Grier of Northwestern, 9-8 (15-13).
While those three Bruins were across the country competing in
Michigan, three other men’s players were capturing titles
closer to home at the Southern California Intercollegiate
Men’s Tennis Championships. Top-seeded Luben
Pampoulov knocked off Alabama’s Luigi
D’Agord 7-5, 6-2 in the finals on Sunday. A Bruin
has captured the title each of the last four years. UCLA’s
top-seeded doubles team of Alberto Francis and
Kris Kwinta took home the doubles title. The pair,
who were eligible to compete at the ITA National Indoor
Championships, defeated fourth-seeded UC Irvine’s
Ryusuke Kashiwabara and Brian
Morton 8-6 in the finals.

ROWING: UCLA placed second out of 23 collegiate
teams at the Newport Autumn Rowing Festival on Sunday.
Elizabeth Pallas-Jacobs, Kristin Bixel, Elizabeth Lee,
Jessica Rogers, Monica Grova, Kelsey Hicks, Lauren Hamman
and Emina Ong were part of the crew that completed
the 2.7 mile course in 17:05, falling just short of USC. One day
earlier, the Varsity “˜A’ Team won the Women’s
Open Eight at the Head of the Marina, beating Loyola Marymount by
12 seconds. The Bruins’ next race will be next Saturday at
the Head of the Lake Competition in Seattle, Wash.

Compiled by Andrew Finley, Bruin sports senior
staff.