Swimming : Medley Relay Teams Lead United States Comeback

Bothered by a strong first-day showing by the East Germans, the United States improved Friday night with two world-best times in the men’s and women’s 200-meter medley relays in the U.S. Swimming International Meet.

The United States, which came up four victories short of East Germany Thursday night, ended Friday with five victories to four for the East Germans and one for Czechoslovakia.

The U.S. men’s team--Coy Cobb of Maitland, Fla., John Moffet of Costa Mesa, Calif., Pablo Morales of Santa Clara, Calif., and Matt Biondi, Moraga, Calif.--won the event in a time of 1:40.21. The time also set an American and U.S. open record.

The existing record of 1:42.47 was set Friday morning by the University of Arkansas entry of Larry Craft of Houston, John Ulibarri of Hoffman Estates, Ill., David Gean of Fort Smith, Ark., and Chris Cantwell of Moore, Okla. The team finished second in the evening race, five-tenths of a second behind the U.S. entry.

The time of 1:42.47 bettered the 1:44.38 recorded by Southern Methodist University in 1982. SMU’s time also was the American and U.S. open record.

The U.S. women’s team set world best, American and U.S. open records in the 200-meter medley relay with a time of 1:54.58. The squad--Betsy Mitchell of Marietta, Ohio, Kim Rhodenbaugh of Cincinnati, Jenna Johnson of Santa Rosa, Calif., and Kathy Coffin of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.--bettered its own world-best mark of 1:55.96. The team set that record Friday morning during preliminaries.

The world best of 2:03--also the American and U.S. open record--was set by the St. Petersburg, Fla., Aquatic Club in 1973.

“I definitely think we got better tonight over last night,” U.S. Coach Richard Quick said. “We lost several close races tonight that we hated to lose. I think we’ve got some of our best events coming up with the men’s 50 freestyle, and 400 freestyle and the men’s and women’s 100 butterfly.

“I think you’ll see more of our people winning their races. Many people would want me to be upset with the way we are competing here. But taking into account the various stages of preparedness of this team, they are giving a good account of themselves. This would not be a bad team to take overseas for a meet, and it is certainly a good nucleus for our 1988 Olympic team.

“We have had a tremendous amount of retirement in key areas since the Olympics, and we miss that leadership.”

Olympian Rick Schroeder of Santa Barbara, Calif., barely edged Ulibarri in the 100-meter breaststroke. Schroeder won in 1:02.76 as he defeated Ulibarri, the top qualifier in the preliminaries.

East Germany, which won seven of 10 events Thursday night, picked up three early victories Friday as Sven Lodziewski won the 800-meter freestyle in a time of 7:49.48. Astrid Strauss won the women’s 200-meter freestyle in 1:59.62, and Cornelia Sirch won the women’s 100-meter backstroke in 1:02.40.

In the 800-meter freestyle, the East Germans took the top three places, easily defeating American Jeff Kostoff of Upland, Calif., the world record-holder in that event. Kostoff finished fourth.

Czechoslovakia’s Marcel Gery won the men’s 200-meter butterfly in a time of 1:57.02, just over a second slower than than the world best of 1:56.07 held by Michael Gross of West Germany.

Michelle Griglione of Alexandria, Va., led a 1-2 finish for the United States in the 400-meter individual medley with a time of 4:44.29. The U.S. women also took the final event of the evening, as Johnson won the 50-meter freestyle in 25.61.

Lodziewski edged Biondi by 15-hundredths of a second to win the 100-meter freestyle in a time of 49.48. East Germany’s Dirk Richter finished third in 49.66.