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Women's swimmers finish most successful season

The UA women swimming and diving team entered the 1999-2000 season with high hopes of improving on their No. 4 ranking from the previous season.

With 20 returning letter winners and 11 All-Americans, the Wildcats had a lot of expectations and aspirations coming into this season

Its 1998-99 campaign was the best in school history as they finished fourth at the NCAA's, after placing third in the Pacific 10 Conference Championships.

The continued success of the program has allowed the UA to become a place where many of the top high school swimmers want to attend. In the off-season the Wildcats recruited two of the best in Amanda Beard and Beth Botsford, who were both Olympic gold medalists in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

"Both Beth and Amanda had awesome seasons," assistant coach Rick DeMont said. "Both were not at the high point of their career when they came to Arizona. After a great season, they are both peaking just in time for the Olympics."

With the addition of these two athletes, the Wildcats finished with a regular season record of 9-2 in the Pac-10, which was the second best finish in school history.

As the UA women's swimming and diving team entered the Pac-10 Championships, they were still the underdogs as they faced the Stanford Cardinal. Since the inception of the women's Pac-10 Championships in 1987, Stanford has won the conference title each season.

Stanford's streak of 13 straight conference titles came to an end, though, as the Wildcats became the first team other than Stanford to win the Pac-10 title.

Arizona was able to pull of the upset as sophomore Sarah Tolar (200-yard freestyle), junior Lindsay Berryman (10-meter platform diving), Botsford (200 backstroke), and Beard (200 breaststroke) all won individual crowns.

Winning their first conference championship made a national championship seem a bit more realistic.

Unfortunately, the top-ranked Georgia Bulldogs defeated the Wildcats by 18.5 points as UA finished second, which tied their best finish in school history. Botsford was the only Wildcat to win a national title as she captured the 200 backstroke title with an American and U.S. Open record time of 2:06.70.

"We swam for a national championship, and we just came up a little short," DeMont said.

Even though they fell short in their bid for the program's first ever team title, this year's team will be remembered as the most successful women's swimming and diving team in Arizona history.

The Wildcats program will continue to be strong as most of the team is returning for next season. The team will lose six swimmers and divers to graduation, including All-Americans Denali Knapp and co-captain Trina Jackson.

Jackson has won three NCAA titles, three Pac-10 titles, an Olympic gold medal at the 1996 Olympics and a silver medal at the 1998 World Swimming Championships.

"She is a great leader," Tolar said. "She led our team in the water and out of the water. Everyone on the team looked up to her."

Knapp is also one of the most decorated athletes in school history as she has accumulated 23 All-American honors including four NCAA titles and two gold medals and one silver medal from the 1999 Pan-American Games.

"Denali is a great girl who works very hard," Tolar said. "She is our team's silent leader."

DeMont referred to Jackson and Knapp as two of the toughest competitors on the team.

In addition to the swimmers, the women divers also had an impressive season as junior Adrian David and junior Lindsay Berryman participated in this year's NCAA National Championships.

In the 10-meter platform competition Berryman finished in sixth place while David finished eighth. This marked the first time ever that Arizona has had two diving finalists in the same diving event.

The UA women's swimming program success has translated into a great recruiting offseason. UA has recruited three women who should all play an intricate role next season. Its top recruit is Diana Munz, a freestyle specialist from Cleveland who is an Olympic-hopeful this year.

Also, junior Lindsay Farella will be returning to action in the 100 and 200 freestyle next season after she red-shirted last year.

With the return of Farella and its new recruits, the Wildcat women hope to once again contend for the national championship crown next season.