U.S. Swimmers Test Speed Against Thorpe

This time, the point of reference for American swimmers was not a specific time or meet record.

It was a very useful human target, none other than the world’s greatest freestyler, Ian Thorpe of Australia. There was no better place and no better opportunity for the likes of Jason Lezak, Klete Keller and Erik Vendt to measure themselves against Thorpe on Friday.

“The Man,” said swim coach Jon Urbanchek, who guides Keller at Club Wolverine in Michigan.

Said Vendt: “It’s good to get in there and race the big dogs.”

Lezak of the Irvine Novaquatics fared the best of the three aforementioned Americans at the Janet Evans Invitational in Long Beach, winning the men’s 100-meter freestyle in a meet-record 49.20 seconds. Thorpe was second in 49.60.

“I tried to conserve a little bit in the first 50 because the last meet I went out a little too hard and it fell apart,” Lezak said of last month’s meet at Santa Clara. “So I swam a smarter race tonight. A lot of times he’s run me down at the end, and I knew he was going to be coming at me.

“To some people it wouldn’t mean anything, but he seems to get me a lot of times. So it means a lot. It gives me a lot of confidence going into trials.”

Keller was impressive in his own way too, sticking near Thorpe for most of the 400 freestyle. Thorpe was his usual smooth self, winning in 3:46.60. Keller’s second-place finish of 3:47.38 was not far off Michael Phelps’ American record of 3:46.73. Vendt took fifth, going 3:53.58.

“It’s always exciting stepping up next to Ian,” Keller said. “I didn’t expect anything close to that time. I think that played a big factor and got my adrenaline going a bit....That’s the fastest I’ve been in season by three seconds, it’s a pretty good confidence booster. It just makes me a little less intimidated the next time I step up.”

What was he thinking being so close to Thorpe, so late?

“I was actually thinking he should be blowing me away about now,” Keller said.

Said Thorpe: “It was good to have someone else there in the race. I thought Craig Stevens swam well also. I wanted to swim the race pretty comfortably and I was able to do that. That was a really good swim for Klete and now looks good coming into the Olympic trials.”

Urbanchek has to keep a close eye on Keller. As the coach conducted an interview on the pool deck, he yelled over to Keller, reminding him he needed to start his warm-down process, now.

That was nothing compared with the angst of the morning prelims Friday. Apparently Keller has trouble keeping track of himself and his belongings.

“He’s very laid-back,” Urbanchek said. “For the first session he couldn’t find his pass. He lost his pass. We couldn’t get him in this morning....We don’t know where his mind is. When he puts his mind into it, he does a good job.”

Keller’s sister Kalyn was also warming down in the pool. She finished second in the 400 freestyle in 4:12.86, just behind Linda MacKenzie of Australia, who went 4:11.76. Urbanchek motioned toward Kalyn.

“That’s his sister. Totally opposite,” Urbanchek said. “She’s very serious about a lot of things. Klete likes to joke around.... He wanted to race the man on home turf here. He did a nice job.”

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Other winners included Justin Norris of Australia in the men’s 200 butterfly (1:57.47), Dana Kirk of Stanford in the women’s 200 butterfly (2:08.40), Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe in the women’s 200 backstroke (2:13.87), Keith Beavers of Canada in the men’s 200 backstroke (2:00.64) and Natalie Coughlin in the women’s 100 freestyle (54.47).

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Norris spoke about the temporary above-ground competition pool, and the crowd of 1,357.

“It’s great,” he said. “And there’s a great crowd out here. In Australia, we’d probably get like five people to an event like this.”

Some of the swimmers spoke about the natural turbulence and wave action that comes with portable pools.

“I think the pool is good. I think the lane ropes aren’t in the right spots ... there’s a lot of turbulence in there, similar to a lot of problems with the pool in Barcelona,” Thorpe said. “The venue is good. Hopefully they can iron out, there’s small problems, for the Olympic trials.”