(To win) we need to make our best times, but this meet will also be determined a lot by the people who get second, third and fourth because that's more points that we can take away from them. |
At the beginning of the year, I felt we were a good team with the ability to be great. I still do. We just need to push a little harder. |
Everyone's on the same page and they all enjoy being around each other. They know what they have to do and they do it. For many years I couldn't say that. |
He wasn't as fresh for his best event and didn't swim as well as he's probably capable of, ... because he chose to be a team player rather than go with his best event. We told him this year we're going to try and help him out and try to get him in his best event. |
He's an amazing kid, ... He's a really good team person. He's always helping people. He's got only one B since he's been at Cal. He's an impressive young man. He's a good person, a leader. |
I think we are right on target and I think we will do really well in the championships. |
In swimming, when you head into championships, it gets worse before it gets better because when you start resting up, you get a bit sluggish the last couple of meets before it. |
It's kind of like a funnel. Meets are just stops along the way and everything funnels down to that goal. |
It's what you think and how you think-confidence. If you believe you can do it, you can. If you don't, it doesn't matter how good you are, you'll never do it. |
Ricky was great. He was in third place at the last turn and just turned it on. |
We had a lot of best times and we've got 16 or 18 going to the NCAA-that's about a whole team-and I'm happy about that. |
We have a lot of motivation. We're currently No. 1 in the country and for some guys, it's the last swim of their (regular season) college careers. |
We know the level of competition (we will face) and we're optimistic at this point. |
We may not have won, but we had the highest number of improved performances this week. |
We swam great. That was about as good as we could hope for. Both relays we were worried about. To win the medley was a big one, and then the 800 was a big swim for us to set a school record. It's just one day out of four but it's a good way to start off. We're hoping it carries over. |