Northridge’s Title Wave Rolls On : Lady Matadors Win Team Championship for 3rd Year in a Row

If winning 13 Division II national swimming team championships in his 19 seasons at Cal State Northridge has taught Coach Pete Accardy one thing it is this:

When you leave your hotel room for the final night of racing at the national meet, be prepared.

For Accardy, that means taking along a pair of shorts and a change of clothes.

Having worn jeans throughout the meet, Accardy chose to show up in even more casual attire Saturday evening at the State University of New York (Buffalo) natatorium. Asked why, he responded, “because shorts dry faster than jeans.”

Ah, the voice of experience.

For the third consecutive season, Accardy took a post-meet pool plunge courtesy of the Northridge women’s team.

The Lady Matadors wrapped up their fourth team championship since 1982 by a comfortable 397-280 margin over North Dakota State .

Northridge won an unprecedented 10 of the 18 swimming events, including three on the meet’s final day. There were also 13 other top-six finishes by the Lady Matadors.

Tina Schnare, Toady Kimble and the 400-yard freestyle relay team of Jude Kylander, Stacy Mettam, Michelle Sulak and Kimble were Northridge’s winners on Saturday.

Schnare, a senior from Manhattan Beach, concluded her swimming career with a pair of accomplishments that can never be bettered.

She won national titles in the 100 and 200-yard breaststrokes four consecutive years. In addition to her eight individual championships, Schnare also swam legs on seven winning relay teams.

Only Army’s Ann Marie Wycoff has more individual championships. She won her ninth--and her fourth in this year’s national meet--in the 1,650-yard freestyle on Saturday. Wycoff was later selected as the meet’s top woman swimmer by a vote of coaches.

Schnare’s victory Saturday came in the 200-yard breaststroke. Her time of 2:20.18 was just off her record performance of 2:19.78 at the same site last year.

“I knew I wasn’t going to break the record. I was exhausted,” Schnare said.

“She got the job done,” Accardy said. “She lost her legs in the last 50 yards or she would have gone 2:18.”

A Northridge victory in the 100-yard freestyle was no surprise--but the swimmer who accomplished it was.

Toady Kimble, a sophomore who failed to even qualify for last year’s national meet, held off teammate Jude Kylander to win in a school-record time of 51.40.

Kimble took the lead with a perfect turn off the first wall, then held off a late charge by Kylander, the pre-race favorite.

“I hoped to go out fast,” Kimble said. “I knew I had to be ahead coming off the last wall or she’d kill me coming home.”

Kylander, the former school record-holder, was second with a personal-best time of 51.51. She concluded her collegiate career with three individual and 13 relay championships

Stacy Mettam, who won five individual and seven relay titles in her career, ended on a low note. She was fifth in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:09.30--some four seconds off her lifetime best.

Accardy called it a mystery race.

“That was the first bad race I’ve ever seen her have when it counted,” Accardy said of Mettam. “She wasn’t in the race right from the start.”

It may not have concluded as planned, but Mettam should be able to take some solace in her contribution to CSUN’s team.

With Schnare, Kylander and Mettam leading the way, the Lady Matadors have dominated the past three national meets as no team had before.

“I never dreamed I’d be on this caliber of a team,” Schnare said. “Winning championships . . . . now it’s a tradition.”

But one that will now have to survive minus its nucleus of four years.

Accardy doesn’t seem to concerned, however.

“It was the same thing in ‘85,” Accardy said. “Then these three walked in.”