UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK / JOHN WEYLER : Two Freshmen Brighten Lean Year in Swimming

This figures to be a lean year for the chlorine gang at Irvine. The Anteater swim and diving teams--men’s and women’s--have a combined total of 25 athletes.

“It’s definitely a low point, as far as numbers are concerned,” Coach Charlie Schober said, “but I really feel very optimistic about building the team at this point. We’re in the middle of heavy training right now and there are a lot of kids who are either sitting on, or have already set lifetime bests without resting at all.”

Two reasons for Schober’s hopes for a brighter future are freshmen Gwen Yoshizumi and Leisha Masi. Yoshizumi, a backstroker, already has twice bettered the school record in the 100-yard backstroke, and Masi, a breaststroker, has Irvine’s top times this season in the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke and the 200-yard individual medley.

Both are hoping to pick up some first-place points this weekend at the 15th UCI Invitational at Heritage Park in Irvine.

“Gwen’s an excellent talent,” Schober said. “She’s working her way through a shoulder problem and she’s really coming into her own. She’s focused and very disciplined.

“She’s mainly a sprinter. She has great speed and is very good coming off the walls. Her strength is her underwater dolphin kick off the walls. When she leads off the medley relay with a 50-yard back, we’re way ahead every time.”

Masi’s strength is her consistency and potential. She has bettered her personal best in the 200-yard breaststroke by four seconds this season.

“Leisha was a fairly average high school swimmer, but she’s a very hard worker, a great competitor and she puts out her very best effort in every workout,” Schober said. “And that work ethic is paying off now.”

Both swimmers came from successful high school programs and found the adjustment to competition at Irvine a bit of a shock.

“I kind of had my mind set on going to UC San Diego, but I applied here, too, and Charlie talked to me a lot about the contribution I could make here,” Masi said. “It’s been a little frustrating, though.

“My high school team (Riverside Poly) had about 40 girls on it and we were used to winning, so it’s really different. You have to concentrate on the fact that each swimmer doing his best is more important than winning all the meets. It’s hard, though, because I’m very, very competitive.”

Yoshizumi, who attended Walnut and swims with the Brea Aquatics club team, also has had to work on lowering her expectations.

“When I came here for my recruiting trip, the team did not look this small,” she said, watching her teammates prepare for a workout. “In high school, we had a big team. It seemed like just about all the girls went out for swimming. And we had so many people, we usually won the meets easily.

“The first couple of meets here were weird when you start noticing that individually, you’re all first or second, but you just don’t have the numbers to win.”

Both swimmers are self-described late-bloomers and Schober hopes they will be the foundation of a program on the way up. Masi’s improvement can be traced to mental maturity and Yoshizumi says she has been serious about swimming for only a couple of years.

“I didn’t start swimming competitively until sixth grade and I didn’t really take it seriously until the summer before my senior year in high school,” Yoshizumi said. “But I decided I wanted to swim in college, so I’ve really been working hard ever since.”

Said Masi: “I used to go to big meets and just choke. I felt like throwing up and crying before every race. But for the last two years, I’ve been able to go to big meets and perform well.

“I’m in better shape, and I’ve gotten a lot stronger, but I’ve gotten mentally tougher and that’s really helped. Now, I just don’t let myself get psyched out.”

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Add Numbers Game: The numbers on his swim teams may be on the decline, but the Schober family increased by one at 8:48 Monday morning. Schober’s wife, Sue, gave birth to their second child, an eight-pound, four-ounce boy.

As of Monday afternoon, Charlie and his wife were still debating on a name.

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The Mighty Quinn: Think men’s volleyball Coach Andy Read is excited that Leland Quinn has decided to return to the team after a year’s hiatus?

“He has the potential to dominate at his position (opposite hitter),” Read said. “He’s one of those guys you can throw the ball to when you don’t get the pass right where you want it and just say, ‘Hit it, big fella.’

“Every good team has a player like that, the kind of guy who can score on those off plays for you.”

Quinn, a 6-foot-9 junior who played at Ocean View High, set the school career-kill record in only two seasons at Irvine. Read said he quit the team because of academic difficulties and a slight case of burnout.

“There was no scholarship money and he just needed to get away for a year,” Read said. “But he would come by the office and talk and I was mainly concerned with getting him back into school. I told him I could call some other places if he wanted, but he’s a very loyal kid. He’s loyal to his friends and loyal to the school.

“Then one day he came in and said he had decided he wanted to play again and decided he wanted to play here.”

You can bet that made Read’s day.

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Ouch Patrol: Junior forward Jinelle Williams, the top rebounder (8.5 per game) and No. 2 scorer (11.7) on the women’s basketball team, has missed the last two games because of tendinitis in both knees.

Freshman Sherise Sandoz made her first two starts of the season replacing Williams and totaled 25 points with 14 rebounds in losses to Drake and No. 5 Colorado.

Williams is expected to return Thursday night when the Anteaters (1-7) open Big West Conference play against defending champion UC Santa Barbara (3-5) at the Bren Center.

Anteater Notes

Freshman Marc-Andre Tardif is No. 47 in the country in singles, according to the latest Rolex Collegiate coaches’ poll. The Irvine men’s tennis team is ranked No. 25.