NCAA Div. I Women: Coughlin and Stitts Pace Cal to 15-Point Win Over UCLA

BERKELEY, Feb. 1. DA Big Bad Bears roared as the Cal women splashed to a 157.5-142.5 victory over UCLA here this afternoon at Spieker Aquatics Complex.

There was no men's meet as UCLA's former A.D. killed off the Bruin's storied men's team a decade ago, arguably beginning a crescendo of cuts that has done more harm to men's Olympic sports than any other single action.

The key Pac-10 match-up gave Cal a sweep of its Southern California foes for the weekend, as Da Bears swamped No. 4-ranked USC yesterday here. UCLA is rated 13th nationally.

Coach Teri McKeever's No. 9 California team (8-2, 4-1) now has a two-week respite before taking on Bay Area rival Stanford in The Big Splash, set for Feb. 15 at noon here.

The Golden Bears and Bruins battled throughout the meet, but Cal pulled out the win after taking the final event of the afternoon, the 200 free relay. Overall, Cal won 11 of the day's 16 events and reeled off five victories in a row to start the meet.

Cal was led by the "dynamic duo" of senior Staciana Stitts and junior Natalie Coughlin, both of whom tripled in impressive fashion to help bolster Cal's success. Stitts took the 100 breast (1:00.80, seasonal pr and No. 2 nationally); the 200 breast (2:13.52) and the 200 IM (2:03.65). Her 100 breast clocking is not far off her pr of 1:00.31 that won the Pac-10 title her freshman season (1999-2000).

Coughlin was typically Coughlinesque, winning the 100 back (No. 1 national 52.55), 100 free (48.65, just off her list-leading 48.02 from the Tiger Invitational at Auburn the first weekend of December); and the 100 fly (51.96). Her fly swim was just off her No. 1 51.88 from yesterday, which in turn is history's third-best 100 fly dual meet clocking.

Oh, she holds the No. 2 time too, a 51.90 that she swam against Georgia exactly three months ago at Athens. So…since just about a year ago — when she broke former Stanford NCAA champ Misty Hyman's dual meet standard of 52.68 with a 52.35 against the Cardinal — Coughlin has twice taken the record down to its current 51.88.

Her American/NCAA standard is 50.01 from last season's championships at Texas.

Coughlin (backstroke) and Stitts (breaststroke) were also a part of Cal's victorious 200 medley relay (1:41.50) team. Junior Natalie Griffith (butterfly) and senior Michelle Harper (freestyle) were also members of that winning quartet. The Bears' winning time would rank them seventh nationally were it not for the fact that they already rank No. 2 with their 1:40.82 from earlier in the season. Texas (1:40.55) is No. 1.

Another key swimmer in Cal's win was freshman Kate Tiedeman, who put in a strong performance in the meet's second event, stroking to a 1000 free win (10:02.53). Sophomore Lauren Medina followed her lead, winning the 200 free (1:50.07) in meet's third event.

Surprising froshwoman Helen Silver, a former Washington state prep All-America who turned down offers from several other major Division 1 programs to swim with Coughlin & Co., continued making good progress — winning the 200 back (1:59.98) and placing third in the 100.

While her 200 time wasn't quite as good as her pr 1:58.25 that she swam yesterday to win against USC, it marked the first time she had ever gone back-to-back sub-two minute 200s — and McKeever's smile was wider than Strawberry Canyon.

On the diving side, UCLA swept both boards with Regan Gosnell winning on the 1-meter (262.32) and 3-meter (308.77) boards. Cal senior Christina Flynn finished third in both (234.22, 1-meter) and three-meter (255.45, 3-meter).

UCLA got a strong showing from rookie Kim Vandenberg, a product of nearby Campolindo High in Moraga, the same high school that a certain Mr. Biondi attended lo these many moons ago. Vandenberg won the 200 fly (1:58.62) to complete a Bay Area sweep, and was runner-up to Coughlin in the 100 (55.94).

Her 200 swim was just shy of her pr 1:58.13 she swam yesterday against the Cardinal, No. 5 on the all-time Btuin list. At NCAAs (if not Pac-10s) she'll be after Annette Salmeen's school-record 1:55.86 from the '96 NCAAs at Michigan. Salmeen still ranks 11th on the all-time performers' list.

Vandenberg's teammates, Sara Platzer (50 free) and Liz Keating (500 free), were the other Bruin winners.

The Bruins are idle next week but travel across town to battle USC in two weeks to conclude their dual-meet season. Then they head north to Federal Way, WA. for the Pac-10s — hosted by Cal at the King County Aquatics Complex — the final weekend of this month.

NCAA DIVISION 1 WOMEN'S DUAL MEET
UCLA VS. CALIFORNIA
SPIEKER AQUATICS COMPLEX
BERKELEY, CA.
FEB. 1, 2003

25 YD. POOL

FINAL SCORE:
CAL 157.5
UCLA 142.5

Feb. 1, 2003

INDIVIDUAL RESULTS

200 Medley Relay
1. Cal 1:41.50
(Coughlin, Stitts, Griffith, Harper)
2. UCLA 1:44.30
(Spivey, Hovsepian, Lewis, Platzer)
3. UCLA 1:45.75
(Watanabe, Seissen, Buck, Shugart)
4. Cal 1:46.61
(Silver, Miller, Kong, Rockwell)
5. Cal 1:49.29
(Ng, Merlone, Palsson, Bingaman)

1000 Free
1. Kate Tiedeman, Cal 10:02.53
2. Liz Keating, UCLA 10:04.21
3. Jackie Lobdell, UCLA 10:10.76
4. Krissy Tinney, UCLA 10:19.92
5. Ashley Chandler, Cal 10:30.52

200 Free
1. Lauren Medina, Cal 1:50.07
2. Malin Svahnstrom, UCLA 1:50.17
3. Danielle Becks, Cal 1:51.07
4. Cheryl Anne Bingaman, Cal 1:52.65
5. Lindsey Smart, UCLA 1:52.77
6. Lindsey Buck, UCLA 1:54.29
7. Keiko Amano, Cal 1:54.72

100 Back
1. Natalie Coughlin, Cal 52.22
2. Taylor Spivey, UCLA 56.10
3. Helen Silver, Cal 56.52
4. Naoko Watanabe, UCLA 57.05
5. Kate Tiedeman, Cal 59.90
LeAnne Cadag, UCLA 59.90
7. Stacy Kearney, UCLA 1:00.15

100 Breast
1. Staciana Stitts, Cal 1:00.80
2. Leslie Hovsepian, UCLA 1:04.69
3. Cathy Coler, UCLA 1:04.83
4. Marcelle Miller, Cal 1:04.90
5. Eileen Seissen, UCLA 1:06.70
6. Gina Merlone, Cal 1:07.09
7. Amy Ng, Cal 1:08.23

200 Fly
1. Kim Vandenberg, UCLA 1:58.62
2. Kristen Lewis, UCLA 2:01.25
3. Lisa Morelli, Cal 2:03.69
4. Natalie Griffith, Cal 2:04.41
5. Flora Kong, Cal 2:04.59
6. Jenna Rais, Cal 2:05.18
7. Kendall Butler, UCLA 2:06.21

50 Free
1. Sara Platzer, UCLA 23.23
2. Danielle Becks, Cal 23.57
3. Michelle Harper, Cal 23.72
4. Erica Shugart, UCLA 23.78
5. Whitney Rockwell, Cal 23.92
6. LeAnne Cadag, UCLA 24.17
7. Emma Palsson, Cal 24.70

One-Meter Diving
1. Regan Gosnell, UCLA 266.325
2. Sara Clark, UCLA 242.25
3. Christina Flynn, Cal 234.225
4. Paige Thompson, UCLA 232.2
5. Alyson Borawski, Cal 200.925
6. Lauren Smith, Cal 171.375

100 Free
1. Natalie Coughlin, Cal 48.65
2. Sara Platzer, UCLA 50.83
3. Kim Vandenberg, UCLA 51.09
4. Danielle Becks, Cal 51.19
5. Cheryl Anne Bingaman, Cal 52.08
6. Erica Shugart, UCLA 52.10
7. Michelle Harper, Cal 52.27
8. Lindsey Smart, UCLA 52.34

200 Back
1. Helen Silver, Cal 1:59.98
2. Naoko Watanabe, UCLA 2:02.17
3. Taylor Spivey, UCLA 2:03.50
4. Amy Ng, Cal 2:03.99
5. Stacy Kearney, UCLA 2:06.19
6. Kate Tiedeman, Cal 2:06.46

200 Breast
1. Staciana Stitts, Cal 2:13.52
2. Marcelle Miller, Cal 2:17.07
3. Brooke Winkler, UCLA 2:18.24
4. Cathy Coler, UCLA 2:18.74
5. Jenna Rais, Cal 2:21.51
6. Leslie Hovsepian, UCLA 2:23.00
7. Gina Merlone, Cal 2:25.61
8. Eileen Seissen, UCLA 2:26.46

500 Free
1. Liz Keating, UCLA 4:55.87
2. Jackie Lobdell, UCLA 4:57.16
3. Lisa Morelli, Cal 4:59.80
4. Lauren Medina, Cal 5:02.29
5. Krissy Tinney, UCLA 5:02.95
6. Ashley Chandler, Cal 5:02.66

100 Fly
1. Natalie Coughlin, Cal 51.96
2. Kim Vandenberg, UCLA 55.94
3. Flora Kong, Cal 56.15
4. Kristen Lewis, UCLA 56.71
5. Lindsey Buck, UCLA 57.05
6. Kendall Butler, UCLA 57.61
7. Keiko Amano, Cal 58.07
8. Emma Palsson, Cal 58.24

Three-Meter Diving
1. Regan Gosnell, UCLA 308.775
2. Paige Thompson, UCLA 265.875
3. Christina Flynn, Cal 255.45
4. Sara Clark, UCLA 252.3
5. Alyson Borawski, Cal 207.9

200 IM
1. Staciana Stitts, Cal 2:03.65
Malin Svahnstrom, UCLA 2:03.65
3. Brooke Winkler, UCLA 2:04.17
4. Natalie Griffith, Cal 2:04.51
5. Amy Ng, Cal 2:05.33
6. Cathy Coler, UCLA 2:07.60
7. Stacy Kearney, UCLA 2:08.38
8. Helen Silver, Cal 2:08.48

200 Free Relay
1. Cal 1:33.40
(Becks, Bingaman, Harper, Rockwell)
2. UCLA 1:33.63
(Platzer, Vandenberg, Shugart, Svahnstrom)
3. Cal 1:36.00
(Amano, Palsson, Kong, Medina)
4. UCLA 1:36.70
(Cadag, Buck, Smart, Butler)

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