University Southern California Trojans
Trojans Set For Pac-10 Championships
February 24, 2004 | Women's Swimming & Diving
Feb. 24, 2004
USC's No. 10 women's swimming and diving team begins competition in the 2004 Pac-10 Swimming and Diving Championships this week. The swimming begins Wednesday (Feb. 25) and runs through Saturday (Feb. 28) at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach, Calif. The diving portion, which will include both women's and men's competitions, runs Thursday (Feb. 26) through Saturday at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatics Center in Federal Way, Wash.
The swimming portion kicks off Wednesday with a pair of timed final relays that begin at 6 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, prelims begin at 11 a.m. and finals begin at 6 p.m. The Pac-10 will hold an invitational on Sunday (Feb. 29) for swimmers to swim individual time trials.
USC AT PAC-10s NOTES
The Trojans won nine titles at the 2003 Pac-10 Championships, finishing third overall. Junior Kaitlin Sandeno accounted for three of those wins, taking firsts in the 400y IM and the 500y and 1650y free. She also anchored USC's 800y free relay win. USC's other winners were Blythe Hartley, who swept all three diving specialties (but is taking the year off while trying to qualify for the Canadian Olympic team) and the graduated Michala Kwasny (200y IM, 200y Fly) ... A Trojan has won the last three 400y IM at Pac-10s and Sandeno will look to make it four in a row ... Since USC's women's team has been competing in the Pac-10 (dating to 1987), Lindsay Benko has the most combined swimming titles at six. Sandeno, with four (including one relay), could tie or surpass Benko this year ... Freshman Kalyn Keller, one of the top middle-to-distance freestylers in the country, will look to become the first USC freshman swimmer to win a Pac-10 title since Benko won twice in 1996 ... A USC diver has won at least one conference diving crown each of the last eight championships. Senior Nicci Fusaro, who won the 3-meter and platform in 2002, is USC's best chance this year to keep the streak alive ... On the men's diving side, Ray Vincent won his first Pac-10 title last year on platform and is looking to repeat.
FAST TIMES
Kaitlin Sandeno opened the season blazing, posting four NCAA automatic times before the calendar hit November. She currently owns auto times in the 200m IM (2:13.32), 400m IM (4:39.15), 100m back (1:00.64, a USC record) and the 200m back (2:11.68). Freshman Kalyn Keller owns the squad's other NCAA auto time in the 1500m free (16:14.97).
FAST TIMES II
Kaitlin Sandeno's times in the 400m IM and 200m free, converted from meters to yards, are first and second in the country according to Taper and Shave's most recent national Top 50. Her 500m free is third, her and 200m IM and 200m fly are fourth and her 100m back is fifth. Junior Margie Pedder owns the top mile time in the country while Kalyn Keller is second in the 500 and fourth in the mile. Co-captain Jana Krohn owns a pair of top 15 times in both fly events.
RETURNING ALL-AMERICANS
USC's women's squad returns five All-Americans off of its third-place NCAA team. Junior Kaitlin Sandeno's five All-American performances topped the team (500y free, 400y IM, 1650y free, 400y medley relay and 800y free relay) while senior Jana Krohn turned in four (100y and 200y fly, 400y medley relay and 800y free relay). Junior Margie Pedder earned All-American nods in the 1650y free and the 800y free relay while sophomore Kammy Miller earned hers on the 400y medley relay. Senior diver Nicci Fusaro finalled on the 3-meter springboard to join the group. On the men's team, three Trojans with All-American credits last year are back.
Mark Schubert
USC Coach Mark Schubert is in his 12th year at Troy. He will make his seventh consecutive Olympic coaching appearance in 2004 when he directs the U.S. women's team in Athens, Greece. Three years ago, he finished a stint as head coach of the U.S. men's swim team at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. Since he has been at USC, the men's and women's swimming programs are a combined 133-43. In his 33 years of coaching, Schubert has placed 28 swimmers on U.S. Olympic teams; these athletes have won 18 gold and eight silver medals, plus five world championship titles.
Hongping Li
An NCAA champion and two-time Olympian, Hongping Li is in his fifth season coaching USC's men's and women's divers. Li, the winner of the 1998 and 1999 United States Olympic Committee's "Diving Developmental Coach of the Year," award, came to USC after serving as the head coach of the Mission Viejo (Calif.) Nadadores Diving Team since 1993. Li has had immediate and tremendous success in his first four years at USC. In 2003, he helped guide Blythe Hartley and Nicci Fusaro to All-American showings at the NCAA Championships. Hartley was a three-time All-American for the second year in a row while Fusaro earned All-American honors for the third year in a row. Hartley, the 2002 NCAA Women's Diver of the Year, repeated as Pac-10 Women's Diver of the Year and Li repeated as Pac-10 Women's Diving Coach of the Year. In 2002, Fusaro joined with Hartley to become USC's only two divers to earn All-American honors in all three diving specialties in one NCAA meet. In 2001, Li guided Kellie Brennan to a pair of All-American honors (and her third consecutive Pac-10 1-meter title) and Fusaro to her first All-American honor at the 2001 NCAAs. Both also reached the top three at the 2001 U.S. Indoor Championships.
