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Matadors Look for Smooth Sailing

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Like sheep sheared of their wool, Cal State Northridge swimmers will compete in the Pacific Coast Conference championships the next three days with weight taken off their shoulders.

And their faces. And armpits. And legs. And nearly anywhere else hair grows.

Coach Barry Schreifels’ men and women adhere to the time-honored tactic of “shaving and tapering” to reach peak performance.

Tapering involves cutting down on workouts as the championships approach. Shaving means just that.

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The swimmers let hair grow throughout the season, and their times got longer as well. On Wednesday in hotel rooms in Long Beach near Belmont Plaza, site of the championships, the hair came off in what Schreifels called a shaving party.

“It’s the happiest moment of their year,” Schreifels said. “Swimming hairless cuts down on resistance, but it also has to do with the feel of the water. They feel like they are jumping into satin sheets.

“We only try to be our best once a year and that’s this weekend,” Schreifels said.

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Schreifels also uses a razor blade to divide his measly 1.8 scholarships for the men’s team.

Five freshmen and a senior kept the program afloat after it was cut in June 1997 before being restored.

Schreifels brought in 11 recruits this season and must divide less than two scholarships among them.

Northridge is 2-6 in dual meets and could finish as high as fourth in the nine-team conference after beating only UC Santa Cruz last year.

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The Matadors’ best chance for an individual title is in the women’s breaststroke where Lexi Lyon is seeded No. 2 and Amanda Mullennix is No. 3.

Lyon, a freshman from El Dorado Hills, and Mullennix, a freshman from San Diego, have recorded four of the top 10 times in Northridge history.

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The Northridge men’s basketball team has two more home games, tonight against Montana and Saturday against Montana State. The Matadors hope to have the same crowd support they enjoyed against Northern Arizona, when a raucous 1,358 fans provided a distinct home-court advantage during an upset victory.

“That crowd was the loudest since I’ve been here,” senior guard Derrick Higgins said. “They pumped us up and responded to what we were doing on the court.”

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