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Show Utah wrestling team. Front row (1 to r): Balvino Irizarry, Sam Arishita, Glen Kawa, Jeff Winderlin, Boi Kawa, co-captain. Middle row (1 to r): Robert Schissler, Steve Vaughn, Jim Sukle, Ron Lemmon, Frail Iacobazzi. Top row (1 to r): Coach Marv Hess, Assistant Coach Jim Rogers, Charles Shepherd, Scott Te Frank Holtry, Jim Routi, Steve Roshek, co-captain. Swim coaches use psychology Five events held in the WAC meet but not in dual meets also cloud predictions. They ait tin 800 yard freestyle relay (in which Utah is a heavy favorite), the 1 butterfly, 100 breaststroke 1 backstroke and 400 individual medley. , Although they lack theovrf depth to contend for conference crown, the other W schools, Arizona State, An New Mexico and Wyoming puncture the title hopes 0 he big three. ASUis rf diving and short freestyle The Loboshave twostando freestyler Bob Milne " backstroker Steve Cnwft J Wyoming's Bob White defending WAC champion 100 and 200 breaststroke a The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Swimming and Diving Championships at Fort Collins, Colo, are one day old, but the psychological battle among the three top competitors, Utah, Brigham Young and Colorado State, began days before. As unlikely as it may seem with so many events and swimmers, Ute coach Don Reddish came up with a 465-465 score for Utah and BYU after listing what he thought would be the finish in each race. But he then added, "Even though I figured it 465-465, with Colorado State about 90 points back, I think Brigham Young has to be favored. I probably gave my own kids the benefit of the doubt in all those races. No one can match BYU's depth." Cougar Coach Says Utah But Cougar coach Walt Cryer, with a counter-psych, said, "My calculations have Utah 470, Brigham Young 435 and Colorado State 370. When you take all times available-including last year's WAC and National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) meets-you realize the potential of Utah's squad. But that doesn't mean we expect to lose. Thirty-five points isn't a huge margin in a big meet like this. Mistakes--bad starts, missed turns-could decide it." Colorado State coach Art Solow also joined the mental battle. "I think it will be a three-way dogfight," said Coach Solow. "I believe Brigham Young must be favored because of its depth, but Utah has great tradition and excellent depth in the freestyle events. We have some excellent front-liners, but we're going to need some of our other kids to score some points. Placing of competitors by coaches will play an important part, as will performance by individuals from the other four teams." Accurate Prediction Difficult These predictions suit the coaches, but for the unbiased odds-maker, an accurate forecast may be much more difficult than in past years. Three factors differ from the first six championships. They are: (1) the emphasis on depth through 12 places instead of six, (2) the greater penalty for a disqualification which could mean as much as 32 points for a relay and 16 points for an individual event, and (3) the presence of a strong Colorado State team, entering its first WAC championship meet. |