Anteaters won’t miss a beat

Looking at Bob Chichester’s profile you would think the man would

go into politics, not sports.

Here’s a man who was an Air Force captain. He’s a lawyer. He was

legal counsel for five years with the U.S. Environmental Protection

Agency. How did he end up becoming the athletic director at UC

Irvine? Why?

The better question is how. How did Chichester attain so much

success and accolades throughout his life? Sports.

He played organized sports at Pasadena Poly High, or sometimes

pick-up basketball games over in his neighborhood in the Pasadena

area. He played with, and sometimes against, Michael Cooper, who

starred at Pasadena High. One of Chichester’s buddies was Bill

Laimbeer, who played at Palos Verdes High.

Chichester, a slender 6-foot-5 swingman, really loved baseball.

“I remember it was hard to gather everyone to play baseball,”

Chichester said. “It was so much easier to get everybody up for a

basketball game.”

After the Air Force, and after his work as a lawyer, Chichester

never forgot the impact coaches made on his life. Now, he’s an

athletic director for UCI because he wants to do the same for the

Anteaters.

When Chichester addressed the media after being introduced as the

Anteaters’ A.D., he delivered a message of sincerity and displayed a

sense of passion for sports and having a strong influence on others.

He also stressed his desire to maintain the level of integrity at

Irvine.

“Commitment, dedication, hard work, sportsmanship, integrity, I

believe you can rely on those values and be very competitive,”

Chichester said of doing things “the right way.”

Chichester also said he realized former athletic director Dan

Guerrero, now the A.D. at UCLA, had built a strong foundation at UCI.

Now, the challenge for Chichester is to continue to build off that

momentum.

“I’m excited about the expectations here,” Chichester said. “There

are some challenges here. I get fired up for challenges. I love to

succeed.”

*

Chichester said he was eager to meet UCI men’s water polo coach

Ted Newland. They are alumni of Occidental College. Chichester is

from the Class of 1979, and Newland is Class of ’54.

Newland was inducted into Occidental’s Hall of Fame in 1996.

*

Julie Swail, the UCI women’s water polo coach, has been rather

busy during the off-season. Swail, 29, recently captured the title of

National Champion at the USA Triathlon National Championships in

Couer d’Alene, Idaho. Swail, who finished the Olympic distance race

in 2 hours, 11 minutes and 14 seconds, finished five minutes faster

than the second-place finisher in her age division.

She was surprised when she learned that she was the top female

finisher, in all age categories by three minutes.

“I had a lot of support going into the race,” said Swail, who was

on the U.S. 2000 Olympic silver-medal winning team. “I was so excited

of this accomplishment, both for me and for the many people who

helped me get to this level.”

Last week, Swail finished sixth in the L.A. Triathlon. She came in

at 2 hours, 7 minutes and 25 seconds in the 1,500-meter swim,

40,000-meter bike and 10,000-meter run test of will and endurance.

Swail will also compete in the Malibu and Long Beach Triathlons

this month to prepare herself for the World Championships in

November.

*

Newland predicted his UCI men’s water polo team would be able to

compete with the best teams in the nation because of the return of

Jeff Powers, a U.S. National Team member, who was a redshirt last

season. However, the key to the Anteaters chance of overcoming

national champion favorite Stanford is Irvine’s other two-meter man

Dreason Barry.

This week, Barry was named the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation

Player of the Week in water polo. He scored four goals to help lead

the Anteaters to a 10-7 groundbreaking win over visiting UCLA, which

was No. 2 at the time. Irvine moved from No. 7 to No. 3 in the

rankings after the victory.

Barry, Newland’s 6-foot-9, 210-pound protege, is still a work in

progress. Barry is from Eugene, Ore., where water polo is not

generally the sport of choice for high schoolers. However, Newland

discovered the raw talent and now he’s been refining him. During the

past off-season, Barry focused on increasing his strength, and he

also continued to strengthen the rapport with his teammates,

including Powers.

“I’ve improved a lot,” Barry said before the season started. “I’m

a lot stronger than I used to be. I came in here and I was getting

pushed around. But, I’ve been working out. I’m more confident and I’m

ready to learn more.”

*

At Vanguard University, the women’s soccer team’s goalie Jordan

Fredriksen, a Newport Harbor High product, was named the school’s

Lion of the Week after posting a shutout and holding a tie with Notre

Dame de Namur.

Fredriksen recorded three saves and her first shutout of the

season, leading to a 2-0 win at Cal State Monterey Bay.

“Jordan’s leadership in the net provides confidence for our team,”

Lions Coach Kerry Crooks said.

Fredriksen also had three saves against Notre Dame, the team that

knocked Vanguard out of the NAIA Region II playoffs last year. She

has 31 saves this season, and the Lions are 2-2-1.