Vendt Nips Phelps in Awesome 400 IM at JEI; Benko Takes the 200 Free for Her Third Victory

LOS ANGELES, July 20. ERIK Vendt won a silver medal in the 400 IM at the Sydney Olympics in 4:14.23 to winner Tom Dolan's world-record 4:11.76. But when he returned to USC that fall for his sophomore collegiate campaign he was in a funk.

"I just couldn't get into the program last season at all," Vendt said shortly after winning a thrilling 400 IM race over Michael Phelps at the Janet Evans Invitational in his home McDonald's Olympic Swim Stadium Pool on the Trojan campus this evening.

Vendt's winning swim (4:13.93) is fastest globally for the year and Phelps' 4:14.15 for second is No. 2 in the world, his pr and a 17-18 national age group record too. His old pr was a 4:15.70 from last year's World Championship Trials in Austin, still of course the 15-16 NAG record.

"I guess I had the Sydney blahs as all last season I just wasn't the same swimmer I had been my freshman year leading up to the Games," Vendt continued. "But then I got that second at the World Championships [400 IM silver behind Italy's Alessio Boggiatto] and I felt like a new man again. I came back to school last fall and I told Mark [Schubert, Trojan coach] I was gonna' have a big year."

And how.

He won the 400 IM and 1650 frees at NCAs, setting SC school records; was runner-up to teammate Klete Keller in the 500 free and was named NCAA Swimmer of the Year.

Then he scored a fourth in the 400 IM at the World Short Course Championships in Moscow a week later and he was on his way.

Vendt missed the 800 free opening night here due to a conflict with a summer school class he's taking but won the 400 free last evening in an unshaved best 3:53+ — just missing the meet record.

This afternoon he did double-duty, qualifying No. 1 in the 200 breast with a pr, meet and SC-record 2:15.72, but scratched finals so he could concentrate on the 400 IM against Phelps, the world record-holder/World Champion in the 200 fly who's starting to branch out into other events now.

In qualifying, Phelps was No. 1 (4:24.97) with Vendt third (4:27.23). Arizona junior-to-be Juan Veloz, a Mexican Olympian, was second (4:26.54).

So the stage was set for another battle royale, similar to the Aaron Perisol-Lenny Krayzelburg matchup in the 200 back on Friday.

But nobody — not Schubert, not Phelps' coach, Bob Bowman, perhaps not even Vendt or Phelps, themselves, thought the outcome would be what it was.

4:13.9/4:14.1 in mid-season? Unshaved? Unrested? Untapered? Get out of here. No way. Not gonna happen.

But it did.

Vendt, who going in had a pr of 4:13.89 from the Y2K Olympic Trials, history's 11th-best performance, knew Phelps' strong suit was his fly and freestyle legs and that if he was going to have any chance at all he had to be competitive on the front-half of the race.

"I told myself and so did my coach that he couldn't lose me on the front half. I had to stay with him but at the same time I had to stay within myself," Vendt explained.

Easier said than done.

Phelps was out like a John Force Funny Car, splitting an eye-popping 56.68 for his fly leg, by far the fastest opening of all-time. Finland's Jani Sievinen swam a 57.64 en route to a 4:13.29 pr/NR that got him the silver behind Dolan at the 1994 World Championships in Rome; and America's Tom Wilkens went a 57.68 en route to a 4:14+ at the WCTs in Austin in March of last year.

Dolan himself was 58.02 in his world record and Vendt's best opening fly segment was a 59.20. He split 58.77 tonight, his best ever, yet already he
was a second and-a-half behind the leader.

But as a certain prominent New Yorker once remarked,
"It ain't over 'till the fat lady sings" and similarly, this race was far from over.

With the announcer calling out the splits at every 50 and noting that Phelps was well ahead of world-record pace, the crowd began whooping, hollering and waving towels in hopes that Dolan's standard would fall.

At 150 Phelps still held an almost two-second lead (1:29.38-1:31.05). As they flipped at the halfway point the Baltimore youngster (he just turned 17
June 30) led, 2:01.76-2:02.76.

Vendt, however, put his breaststroke talents to good use and began slicing into the leader's advantage. At 250 meters he had edged ahead, 2:38.33-2:39.17, and with 100 meters remaining led, 3:14.55-3:16.61.

At this point Phelps could have called it a day and everyone would have understood: why kill yourself for nothing, right?

Uh-uh. Phelps is a true competitor. You don't get to be a world record-holder by crying "uncle."

Both swimmers put their heads down and went for the win on the final 100 but with just one lap remaining Vendt's lead was still nearly two seconds, 3:44.70-3:46.57. Phelps now used his powerful kick and his long arms to try and catch the leader on that final lap and he came awfully close, losing by a mere .23.

Afterwards, North Baltimore coach Bob Bowman praised his protege for his great effort but noted that he's
"got work to do" on his backstroke and breaststroke.
"But that's what a meet like this is for, to gauge where we are and see what we need to do."

As for a rematch in less than a month at the U.S. Nationals in Ft. Lauderdale, Vendt said: "I think that'll be great, a real crowd-pleaser. I never dreamed we'd go this fast here and I'm really glad we could race each other. I think today was a learning experience for everybody and I only hope Tom [Dolan] will be at Nationals too."

Dolan took the year after Sydney off but has resumed training and is reported to be planning to swim at Nationals. Another swimmer who could well enter into the equation at Lauderdale is Wilkens, who did not compete here.

Vendt has one race remaning tomorrow, the 1500 free against American record-holder and Sydney bronze medalist Chris Thompson. Phelps will likely swim the 200 IM and perhaps the 100 fly too.

* * * * *

The third day of the Evans Invitational saw a continuation of the Trojan dominance, with SC's Lindsay Benko racing to her third gold with a wall-to-wall 1:59.11 200 free victory. Second was Cal's Natalie Coughlin, the race's top qualifier, and third was 100 free runner-up Gabrielle Rose of NOVA.

Benko had previously won the 100 and 400 frees. Her 200 time is her seasonal-best and just off her pr of 1:58.86 that she swam leading off the U.S.' gold medal-winning 800 free relay at rhe Olympics.

She said she plans to swim the 100-200-400 at Lauderdale. She also finaled in the 50 free but didn't medal.

Former Trojan and now Club Wolverine star Klete Keller won the men's 200 (1:51.97) with Sun Devil's Scott Vonschoff runner-up (1:52.04) and SC's Jeff Lee third (1:52.33).

The women's 200 breast was a thrilling race between MetWest's Tara Kirk and Ford's Amanda Beard, Sydney bronze medalist, with the former winning by just
.04, 2:29.25-2:29.29. A junior at Stanford this fall, Kirk's time is her pr and is the second time in two years she's gone a pr at this meet, having swum 2:29.41 to win last year.

She set American and national-collegiate records en route to the golds at NCAAs this past season in the 100-200 yard breaststrokes and will be looking for gold in the 100 breast Sunday.

Japanese Olympian Ryosuke Imai, who graduated from SC last year and was a stellar performer for the Trojans during the '99-'00 and '00-'01 seasons, finaling at NCAAs, won the men's 200 in 2:16.40 to former Cal All-America Nuk Sirisanot's 2:16.44.

Imai represented his country at Sydney and then last sumemr at the World Championships but says he's
"taking it easy" this year and will not participate in either the Pan-Pacs or the Asian Games in October.

Sirisanot, a native of Thailand who was a prep All-America at Bolles a few seasons ago, is still going strong at 26 and his time is a pr and national record too. His old pr-NR was 2:16.47. Imai's pr is 2:16.12 from the U.S. spring Nationals two years ago.

In the sprints, Cal's Haley Cope clocked 25.49 to win the women's 50 while Arizona's Roland Schoeman, NCAA 50 champ, won in 22.61. NOVA's Jason Lezak, who won the 100 free in a meet-record 49.84 Friday, was runner-up (22.76).

Schoeman formerly held the U.S. Open record in the 50 m free and that time — 22.04 from the Nationals in Minneapolis three summers ago — is still his pr, a South African record and the Commonwealth standard too.

Speaking of the Commonwealth, that's where Schoeman's heading on Monday, i.e., to Manchester to join his countrymen for the Commonwealth Games.

Lezak ranks No. 1 globally this year in the 50 free off his 22 flat victory at the Nationals in Minneapolis last March, The former U Cal Santa Barbara sprinter, who now trains with Coach Dave Salo's NOVA team in Irvine, also leads the world in the 100 free with his pr 48.89.

The final individal race saw Auburn's Maggie Bowan, World Champion in the 200 IM, have no trouble winning the 400 with her seasonal-best 4:45.47. Second was Stanford froshwman-to-be Kristen Caverly (4:48.68).
These two should swim against each other again at Lauderdale, and ifall goes well a week or so later in Yokohama (Pan-Pacs), not to mention next March
at NCAAs.

— Bill Bell

9TH ANNUAL SPEEDO/JANET EVANS INVITATIONAL
MCDONALD'S OLYMPIC SWIM STADIUM
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES, CA., July 20

50 M Pool

** Meet Record

EVENT 13: WOMEN'S 200 M FREESTYLE

WORLD 1:56.78 F. VAN ALMSICK GER 9/6/94
AMERICAN 1:57.90 NICOLE HAISLETT USA 7/27/92
MEET 1:58.02 CLAUDIA POHL COSTA RICA 2000
QUALIFYING FOR OLYMPIC TRIALS 2:03.39
QUALIFYING FOR NATIONALS 2:04.89
QUALIFYING FOR THIS MEET 2:10.28