SWIMMING : Cal Seeks Qualifying Marks in Collegiate Cup West Meet

California, UCLA and USC head a field of 13 men’s and women’s swimming teams competing in the Speedo Collegiate Cup West today through Saturday at Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach.

Cal is favored because it is making a special attempt at reaching NCAA qualifying time standards before the holiday break. Turkish Olympian Uger Taner, German Martin Herrmann and Australian Kurt Eldridge lead the Cal men’s team. Trina Radke, Sonya Nimtz and Lisa Summers are Cal’s top women.

UCLA’s Brian Kurza, Michael Picotte, Natalie Norberg and Richelle Depold, and USC’s Mike Merrell, Mike Mason, Ayako Nakano and Jenn Hutchinson are expected to contend for individual titles.

Cal State Northridge, UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine, Brigham Young, UC San Diego, University of San Diego, Cal State Bakersfield, Claremont, Pomona-Pitzer, Occidental, Pepperdine’s women’s team and a few members of the Stanford men’s team complete the field.

Preliminaries begin each day at 10 a.m. Finals, including bonus, consolation and championship heats in each event, start at 6 p.m. The bonus heats give swimmers from lower-division schools a second chance to compete each day.

“It is good for their programs to get a chance to go head to head against the bigger teams,” Darrell Fick, meet director and USC women’s coach, said.

The fastest 24 times in each event will be compared to, and scored against, those in the Speedo Cup East meet, also this weekend, in Ann Arbor, Mich.

The 200-yard freestyle relay, 500 freestyle, 200 individual medley, 50 freestyle and 400 medley relay will be swum today.