Squad swims to fifth in Pac-10 meet
Tuesday, March 2, 1999
Squad swims to fifth in Pac-10 meet
CONFERENCE: Keiko Price
takes freestyle title while team gears up for NCAAs
By Steve Kim
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The best race for the UCLA women's swimming team at the Pac-10 championships couldn't have been better performed. And that performer was none other than Keiko Price.
The junior sprinter cranked out the 100-yard freestyle in a season best time of 49.54 seconds to claim the event.
"Keiko was amazing," head coach Cyndi Gallagher said. "Her winning a Pac-10 title makes this 12 consecutive years of UCLA having a Pac-10 win."
Price also placed third in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 23.25 seconds. Her lifetime best of 22.80 in the preliminaries would have edged out the finals winner, Stanford's Catherine Fox, who posted a time of 22.81 seconds.
Another big story for the Bruins was freshman Katie Younglove's performance in the 200-yard butterfly. She had already qualified for the NCAAs with a sub-two minute swim at the USC dual meet. She then lowered her time at the Pac-10s to reach a lifetime best of 1:59.35, placing second behind Stanford's Misty Hyman.
"She's changed a lot of things to make herself improve," Gallagher said of Younglove. "She's got a great work ethic, and she'll try anything, take risks. It's paying off."
Younglove, a possible NCAA entry in the 500, is among a talented pool of freshmen this year. Her freshman teammates Lyndee Hovsepian, Jen Noddle, Nicole Beck and Julia Voitovitsch are also likely to make individual NCAA event cuts.
Unofficially, 11 Bruins will make their way to the NCAA championships, but the official list comes out later this week.
Crucial on this Bruin NCAA team are the relay swimmers, since their events will be a significant part of the scoring system. They will enter in the 200 and 400 freestyle relays, and they were on the bubble for the 200-yard medley relay.
The UCLA team badly needed the 200 medley relay in the NCAAs, and the Pac-10s were the last chance to qualify. Gallagher made sure the team knew how important this meet was.
"I gathered the relay swimmers in a meeting and challenged them," she said.
"The medley relay team needed to drop a second off their old time. They took the challenge, and they did it. I have a pretty good feeling they'll make the NCAA cut.
"It was really important to them that they represent UCLA in the relays because that's what gets us in the top 10," Gallagher continued. "It was a little stressful, but they did a great job. With three relays now, we're going to be competitive in the NCAAs."
UCLA finished fifth overall after Stanford, USC, Cal and Arizona, all of which are national top 10 teams. After such a competitive conference meet, Gallagher predicted the pressure factor at the NCAAs will be dampened.
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