By
Lindsey Manroel
Arizona Daily Wildcat
UA women manage to swim and dive through injuries, absences
After battling a season filled with adversity - including a long list of absences and injuries - the members of the Arizona women's swimming and diving team concluded the season on a positive note.
"It was filled with a lot of setbacks, and because of some of the adversities, there were some disappointments," head coach Frank Busch said. "I think that we were able to make up for a lot of our losses and our girls did a good job at handling that."
The Wildcats welcomed back Olympic bronze medalist Amanda Beard to the spring season and Arizona managed to bounce back from injuries and absences to finish the regular season in second place among the Pacific 10 Conference.
UA pulled off an impressive sweep against top-ranked Stanford and California, the squad's top accomplishment during the season's dual meets.
"That was awesome," junior Sarah Tolar said. "We don't emphasize the dual meets - we just know that we have to race fast, look at the girl next to us and get our hand on the wall first."
Entering the season, most preseason polls had Arizona ranked No. 1.
The Wildcats would then face controversy after competing in the Pac-10 Championships.
After an impressive team effort, the women's team thought they had captured its second straight Pac-10 title.
However, after a statement was released by the conference on March 9, UA soon realized that its title had been stripped.
Due to a miscalculation in adding the top diving scores to the point total, the UCLA Bruins were handed the Wildcats' trophy.
"It came as a huge surprise to us and at first we were shocked," Tolar said. "But when we look back, it doesn't change how we swam or how we felt about our meet."
Arizona then faced its final test of the season - the 2001 NCAA Championships.
Arizona finished fifth behind NCAA Champion Georgia.
Despite not contending for the championship, the Wildcats managed to find individual success.
Beard became the NCAA Champion in the 200-yard breaststroke, recording a time of 2 minutes, 9.09 seconds.
Sophomore Beth Botsford took second place in her strongest event. The Wildcat touched the wall at a time of 1:55.65 in the 200-yard backstroke.
Arizona's 400-yard freestyle relay team - consisting of Jenny Vanker, Caroline Kilian, Tolar and Michelle Engelsman - captured third place, recording a time of 3:17.26.
After putting a close on the 2001 spring season, the Wildcats are welcoming the challenge that awaits them.
The squad will likely lose just two athletes - seniors Lindsay Berryman and Adrian David - at the end of the season.
"Those girls are so awesome and have done so much for our team," Tolar said. "They've been amazing and we are really going to miss them as teammates."
However, the one thing that the members of this squad have learned from the season is how to handle adversity.
"It's just a matter of being healthy," Busch said. "Our girls are realizing that it doesn't matter what the circumstances are - you just have to swim tough and swim through adversity.
"We have a great future and we can be a much better team next year than we were this year."
