Will It Be a Stroke of Luck?

With her freshman year at UCLA behind her, Amber Wines is glad to be home for the summer with family, friends and a new swim club.

Wines, a former Santa Ana Valley High standout, took third in the 100-yard breaststroke at the Pacific 10 finals and seventh at the NCAA Division I finals this spring.

Her performance was impressive, but it wasn’t easy.

“It was hard the first couple of months,” Wines said. “I was homesick and the academics and swimming were harder than I thought. Before I went up there, I had one practice a day that lasted two hours. But at UCLA, I had three morning workouts [a week] in addition to the regular six-day workouts. Plus I had weight training and dry land. . . . It was hard.”

It took her a few months to adapt, but by December the homesickness started to disappear.

“That probably was the hardest part, being away from home,” Wines said. “I’m really close to my family, so there were times when I wanted to go home. But the feeling started to go away, and school started to feel like my new home.”

Now that she’s back home in Santa Ana for the summer, preparing for this weekend’s Janet Evans Invitational at USC, Wines is not only busy with family and friends, but also with her new Irvine Novaquatics teammates--many of whom were former high school opponents.

As a sophomore in 1994 at Santa Ana Valley, Wines set a record at the Foothill Swim Games in the 100-yard breaststroke and reached the Southern Section Division I finals in the event.

As a junior, she won at the Division I finals in 1 minute 3.20 seconds, breaking an 11-year record; however, as a senior, she finished third behind Amanda Beard of Irvine and Mater Dei’s Jessamyn Miller.

Wines swam with Los Caballeros in Fountain Valley during high school but switched clubs this summer at the suggestion of her coach at UCLA.

“I’ve been with the Novas for two weeks now, and the workouts are hard,” Wines said. “It’s difficult sprint work. And if anybody tells you that these kind of workouts are easy, it’s a lie.”

Said Novaquatics Coach Dave Salo: “Amber was an Olympic trials’ finalist last year and she is very capable of being one of the best. But there are things we think we need to do to change her stroke if she wants to break on through into the top three.”

Salo said Wines’ improvement is not a question of her attitude toward workouts.

“She trains and works hard,” he said. “She learned how to pace her event better, but there are technical changes she needs to change,”

For Wines, who hopes to make the U.S. teams for World Championships and the Pan-American Games, the task of changing her stroke after 15 years may seem daunting, but Salo says it can done.

“Steve West came to us in 1995 and we made changes to his stroke. He was receptive and it helped him,” Salo said.

West just missed making the U.S. Olympic team, finishing third in the 200-meter breaststroke at the Olympic trials.

Salo said swimming alongside Olympic medalist Beard will certainly help Wines’ training, and Beard’s as well.

“Amber has a fast first half in her race, so we need to also help her have a fast back end to her race,” he said. “For Amanda, her back half is faster than her first half, so if we can get Amanda to get out as fast as Amber does her first half, that would be a key for both of them. At least it will make for some interesting swims.”

Wines acknowledges it will be difficult to change her stroke, but she’s willing to give it a try.

“It’s going to be hard, and I hope this will make the difference,” she said. “But we’ll see how it goes.”