Tucson is home to 12 swimmers who hope to make a big splash this week at the 1996 U.S. Olympic Trials.

The trials begin today and will run through Tuesday at the IUPUI Nautatorium in Indianapolis.

Eight current Arizona swimmers will compete for spots on Team USA. They include seniors Becky Gumpert, Jason Hodder and Martin Pepper, junior Abe Wick, sophomores Heather Branstetter, Laurie Kline and Liesl Kolbisen, and freshman Leah Zucker.

Also competing from Tucson are four postgraduate swimmers who trained with the Wildcat staff at Arizona's Hillenbrand Aquatic Center. Former Wildcats Kelli King-Bednar, Crissy Ahmann-Leighton and Seth Pepper join Melanie Valerio, a graduate of Virginia.

Experience is not lacking in this group of Olympic hopefuls. The most well-known of the group is Ahmann-Leighton. She was an Olympian in 1992 and returned home from Barcelona with two gold medals and one silver.

Ahmann-Leighton took the gold medal in the 400-meter individual medley, and helped the U.S. 400 relay team to a gold medal while breaking the world record in the event. The 1992 graduate of Arizona also took second in the 100 butterfly.

Events of the first day include the women's 100 freestyle, the men's 100 breaststroke, and the women's 400 individual medley.