University Southern California Trojans
Pre-Meet Press Conference Quotes
June 21, 1999 | Women's Swimming & Diving
March 17, 1999
Georgia Head Coach Jack Bauerle
"We're excited about hosting this meet. Some of you remember our old pool, but we've come a long way. We're excited because this is one of those times when the meet is really up for grabs. There are a lot of teams that have a shot at winning it all.
"I'm really happy to show off our facility and anxious to swim in front of the Athens crowd. It's going to be a knock-down, drag-out war this weekend. I'm looking forward to a great meet. It might go down to the very last event.
"I have little different view going into this year but I still think that the champion is the champion, no matter. I feel like we've had some successes, but it's been a crazy for all us. We had some luck against Stanford at the time when maybe they weren't as prepared and at the same token we went down and lost at SMU. Because of that you can look around and say that anything can happen at any given time.
"We're a little bit more hunted than we have been before but that's OK. That's what we've been trying to earn. We feel privileged to be here with these team and for me personally to be here with these coaches. We've used some of these programs as our benchmark for success, so we're going to enjoy the ride while we're here. We're going to compete hard and race hard and wherever that leaves us is fine. We're just happy to be part of the fray. Last year we got a little closer and we started thinking in other directions which is good. Last year made us look and see that we have a chance at doing something that we've always dreamed of doing."
Georgia Student-Athlete Kristy Kowal
"Know our team is really excited to be hosting the NCAA Championships as we've watched the pool being prepared the last two weeks. We're happy to have 17 great girls on this team with me and we're really excited to get the meet started. We're just really excited that we're ranked up there with the best teams in the country.
"Definitely I look forward to seeing everybody and I'm glad to have them in my own pool. It's a lot of fun competing against people you normally don't get to compete against. That's what makes this meet so special.
Stanford Head Coach Richard Quick
"So far we've really had a sense of the Georgia Bulldog hospitality. So far we've had a wonderful visit, but I hope the Bulldogs are as gracious with their points. I'm looking forward to our team's performance.
"We came in here in January and got blasted, but we're healthier now. We swam without a couple of swimmers that are here in this meet. We feel like we have more of a complete team with them. We were a little shorthanded against Arizona as well, but believe me, that's not why we lost those meets. On that day, I think Arizona was better than we were and Georgia was too. We feel like we're in as good a position from a health stand point that we can be.
"I think for us and probably any team that is going to win this meet, you've got to do well in the relays and for us we have to do well in diving as well as swim to our capabilities. Everybody's going to say the same things there. There are a lot of swimmers in this meet that are going to be scoring in the top four that right now are ranked out of the top 16."
Stanford Student-Athlete Elin Austevoll
"For us I guess this year has been a little different from other seasons. We've had kind of a bumpy ride this season, but I definitely feel like we've come together now and we're very excited to be back to Athens. We're looking for all our girls to come together and do their best and then tally up at the end and see how it ends up. We're definitely excited about it.
"It's definitely a privilege to compete against the best in the world. I feel that we can only make each other better by competing against each other. The good times come when you have really good competition and that's what we have here."
Arizona Head Coach Frank Busch
"Athens is a very beautiful town and the University has been a very pleasant surprise. I didn't know what to expect coming in here. I hope our team competes as well as they can."
Arizona Student-Athlete Trina Jackson
"I just want to say since Arizona doesn't usually get to come to this side of the United States, it's been really fun. Kristy (Kowal) and I were talking that how we should get a meet going between Arizona and Georgia.
"For the Wildcats, I think we have a half new team and a half old team. We have a lot of experience with the upperclassmen but not so much with the underclassmen. It's going to be exciting because they've never experienced anything like this. They got through Pac-10s but this is a whole different ball game with different people to deal with and different obstacles. I think it will be a battle that they will remember for the rest of their lives."
SMU Head Coach Steve Collins
"We're excited to be here and are looking forward to a great meet. The teams here have swam well throughout the season to get to this point. I felt we had a very good schedule to help us prepare. We have some experience which is bitter-sweet because we have six great seniors who have been focused on what it takes to be here.
"I think this is the type of meet you want to have in the highest quality facility you can possibly have, and it doesn't matter what part of the country it's in. It's certainly nice to be in a warm climate and that type of thing. It's nice to be close to the East Coast for the media exposure, but from the swimming and diving standpoint the key is to be in a quality facility where the athletes have an opportunity to perform as well as the possibly can and this is certainly the type of facility we'd like to see it in."
SMU Student-Athlete Marina Moravcova
"I think for us, this year has been excellent and we've been progressing rapidly towards this Championship. Like Steve said, we've been focused on the process getting here. I think we have a very experience squad of people with six seniors. It's like for us, we feel like it's our last chance to swim and perform here at NCAAs. It's like baking a cake for us, we just need to add the icing to the top of it and that's what we hope to do here.
"I'm swimming the same three individual events that I've swam the past three years, so I think I know a good strategy for those races even though I'm going to swim against different people. I know what I need to do to win to bring the necessary points for our team and try to go for my best times because this is my last chance to swim yards."
USC Head Coach Mark Schubert
"We're obviously very impressed with this spectacular facility. Swimmers since that the pool is very fast an the meet will be terrifically fast and competitive. It's kind of sad for me because in that we have two seniors that have been a tremendous part of our program the last three years. It's sad watching them swim in their last competition, but I'm looking forward for a great meet from them and from our team.
"One of the more fun aspects about the NCAA meetings is picking the seating. A lot of coaches are going to pick the seating so that they're looking at the parents in the stands. I think competing against each other is real fun, and the team aspect is real fun, but the craziness of the parents is absolutely a riot. I think it makes this one of the best meets in the sport."
USC Student-Athlete Lindsay Benko
"For USC, we're definitely excited to be here, I can't not tell you that, but we've had a bumpy ride. We're just happy to be here and we're going to have a lot of fun, and that's what you can expect from us.
"Coming to this meet is a lot of fun because you get to see people that you don't get to see often. It's like one big party and you know everybody. When you get up to compete against them it's probably totally different than when you're sitting on the sidelines talking to them. That's something you have inside of you and competition is something that you have inside of you and competition is something that all of us have up here and everybody else that's in this meet. Everybody's a competitor, but we're also really good friends, too.
"From my standpoint, I really don't know what is a fast pool and what isn't a fast pool, but when I got in the pool Monday night and then got out, I was like wow. I knew this was going to be a fast pool."
