By Joann Groff
Assistant Sports Editor
Despite the rain and wind at Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool, the women’s swimming and diving team claimed an overwhelming 220-63 victory over Loyola Marymount last Saturday.
“They did great this Saturday,” Head Coach Nick Rodionoff said. “The whole concept is to improve a little every week and they definitely did that. That was all we wanted. The whole group is a little ahead of where they should be, which is nice.”
The swimmers say the frigid conditions made it tough, but swimming and diving well was on the agenda for the day and nothing was going to stand in their way.
“Under the conditions I would say we did a great job,” junior Stephanie Hammond said. “The cold makes muscles tight and the rain is a psychological downer.”
The Waves won 13 of the 15 events in the dual meet with the help of double individual winners Hammond, senior Lindsey Krusen and freshman Ketrina Lemmen.
Hammond claimed the breaststroke events, coming in at 1:08.84 minutes in the 100-yard race and 2:28.75 in the 200.
“My times weren’t as fast as they should be,” Hammond said. “But I still came out on top of most of my events.”
Krusen won the 200-yard butterfly in 2:12.69 minutes and finished first in the 500-yard freestyle in 5:29.91.
“I have always been an (individual medley) swimmer here, but lately I’ve been working on my butterfly and distance swimming,” Hammond said. “A lot of the upperclassmen are trying to do the same thing — we’re trying to be good swimmers all around.”
Lemmen is already being considered the top backstroker on the team, sweeping the 100 and 200-yard races with times of 1:01.23 and 2:11.83 minutes, respectively.
Other individual event winners were freshman Megan Kelly in the 100-yard freestyle, freshman Nicole Okuna in the 100-yard butterfly, freshman Marian Roan in the 1,000-yard freestyle and junior Meghan Melton in the 200-yard freestyle.
Despite a very talented squad, the team members said they realize there is always room for improvement.
“The only thing we are really trying to work on is controlling our speed during races,” Krusen said. “Knowing when to turn it on and when to relax in the course of a race.”
The Pepperdine divers contributed greatly to the Waves’ victory, especially senior Michelle Barker, who claimed both of the one-meter diving events, raking in 400.5 points for Pepperdine.
“I feel like we did pretty well,” sophomore Emily Andrews said. “It was tough in the rain. It made us more relaxed and we didn’t expect as much of ourselves.”
Andrews said LMU was not too much of a challenge, and it gave the girls the opportunity to experiment with new dives, such as a front two-and-a-half on the one-meter and some new twisting dives.
“The reason we did new dives is because we had no competition,” Andrews said. “It gave us a chance to try stuff we’ll do later in the season.”
Rodionoff says he is very pleased with the quality of divers on the team this year.
“Our divers are the strongest ever,” he said. “I have five very good divers, they are basically better than anyone they will compete against.”
With new dives and all-around strength on the team, Andrews says the women are confident the diving squad will be a solid unit this season.
“I think we are getting pretty consistent,” Andrews said. “We are coming in with at least mid scores on all of our dives. That will help us later on.”
Junior Michelle Lydin attributes the team’s success to the new swimmers on the team who give them a depth element that is sure to lead them to a winning schedule.
“The upper-class swimmers have an easy time pulling the team together because there is so much talent,” Lydin said. “Especially with our new power source: the freshmen.”
The freshmen recruits have already proven themselves, just two meets into the season, and are recognized among the entire team as a key addition to the team.
“We weren’t sure what role the freshmen would have,” Rodionoff said. “What’s happened is because they are very good, they have challenged the upperclassmen and made them step up.”
Pepperdine’s freshmen have become an integral part of the team, scoring a significant amount of points in the meet Saturday.
“Everyone is surprising me,” Assistant Coach Amy Gray said. “They are all doing well, but the freshmen really stand out. They’re swimming consistently, which can be hard for freshmen.”
The Waves travel to the University of San Diego Nov. 16 to face the Toreros and visiting team, University of Nevada Reno.
“USD will be close competition,” Hammond said. “Motivating each other will be essential. Their times are good — we’ll definitely have some competition.”
The competition may be a little stricter in the diving department, as USD is trying to limit the number of Pepperdine’s divers to only two.
“This would really hurt us because we have such depth,” Rodionoff said. “They are trying to eliminate our strength in numbers.”
Whether this rule will be implemented, the meet versus the defending conference champions will be a challenge.
“USD won conference last year,” Krusen said. “But we really have a chance to compete with them this year. We are a racing team now.”
A racing team that is ready to take on a school that is perhaps their biggest rival. Being so early in the season, the athletes know they have much to work on, but are ready to take the Toreros on.
“USD beat us at conference last year, but this time, we are going to give them a run for their money,” Gray said.
Her partner on the coaching staff agrees that it will be a close match.
“It’s too early in the year to push too hard or to have too many expectations,” Rodionoff said. “It’ll be exciting — the girls are very excited to have some real competition. This should be our toughest meet of the year.”
— Tyler Watters and staff writer Hailey Amato contributed to this article.
November 14, 2002