National Short-Course Swimming Championships : Biondi Adds to Wins and Identity

Just last June, Rowdy Gaines was asking, “Who is Matt Biondi?” He asked because Biondi had just come out of nowhere to make the Olympic team by earning the fourth spot on the 400-meter freestyle relay team.

Last week, at the NCAA swim meet, Biondi broke Gaines’ American records in the 100-yard freestyle and 200-yard freestyle.

Now everyone knows who Matt Biondi is.

Thursday night, in the National Short-Course Swimming Championships at East Los Angeles College, Biondi won the 200-yard freestyle and anchored the Golden Bear team’s 800-yard freestyle relay victory.

Biondi, a 6-6 sophomore at California, swam the third-fastest 200-yard freestyle ever, a 1:33.97. The fastest is his 1:33.22 last week.

Also in this meet, Biondi swam the second-fastest 100-yard freestyle ever in winning the event Wednesday night.

He seems to be the man to beat in the sprints these days, but he’s also an All-American water polo player for Cal. Asked where his emphasis would be for the Olympics in 1988, he said: “That’s too far off. I didn’t even start thinking about ’84 until April of ’84.”

Indeed, no one except Stu Kahn, Biondi’s coach at Campolindo High in Moraga, Calif., had made long-term predictions of an Olympic gold medal for Biondi in ’84.

“It’s been amazing, really,” Biondi said. “He’s been telling me for years what I was going to do, the chain of events and the times. He’s been right. . . .

“At the time, when he would tell me, I’d just think, ‘Wow, that would be great.’ ”

The believers are jumping on the bandwagon at this point.

After the Olympic trials last summer, it seemed that Mike Heath would take over Gaines’ role as the dominant force in the freestyle sprints, especially the 200. But Thursday night, Biondi led all the way, pulling away down the stretch.

“I knew I had to get out real fast, because I had been getting a small lead and then dragging people along,” Biondi said. “I went out fast, and then I still felt real strong on the third 50. The last 50 is easy--you just go as hard as you can. . . .

“I was aware of Heath in Lane 1. To me, he is still the best in the 200 freestyle I’ve ever swum against. He’s the man to beat. So I got a fix on him and kept watching him.”

Heath finished second, followed by Chris Jacobs.

Biondi, 19, and Heath, 20, will be doing a lot of racing over the next few years to settle this question of who is to fill the star role left open by Gaines.

“That’s good,” Biondi said. “Sometimes I wish I could be the fastest, no question, but then I wouldn’t be pushed to improve.

“It was like at the NCAA meet when Tom Jager (of UCLA) helped me set my record in the 100 and I helped him set his record in the 50. Competition is what it’s all about.”

Competition is also wide open in the women’s 400-yard individual medley now that Tracy Caulkins has retired.

Michelle Griglione, 15, of Alexandria, Va., won the 400-yard individual medley in 4:13.67--far off the American record of 4:04.63 set by Caulkins in 1981.

Erika Hansen, 15, of King of Prussia, Pa., was right behind Griglione.

“We’ll probably be racing like that for a long, long time,” Griglione said. But she was making no brash promises about how soon one of them might catch Caulkins’ time.

Shaking her head, Griglione said: “I have a lot of respect for that time. . . . Who knows how many years it will be before somebody does it?”

Mary Wayte, a University of Florida swimmer who won the Olympic gold medal at 200 meters last summer, won the 200-yard freestyle in 1:46.70, beating Juliane Brossman and Carrie Steinseifer.

Matt Rankin, a high school student from Portland, defended his national title in the 400-yard individual medley, beating Jeff Kostoff of Industry Hills, who set the American record in the event while swimming for Stanford last week in the NCAA meet.

That was not really the big upset it might seem to be. “College swimmers have to rest for a lot of big meets,” Rankin said. “They have to rest and taper for their conference meets, and they have to taper and shave for the NCAAs. They swim their guts out there.

“For me, I’ve been looking toward this meet all year.”

In the relays, important for the club team titles, the Golden Bear (Cal) men won the 800-yard freestyle relay, and the Holmes Lumber (Florida) women won the 800-yard freestyle relay. Holmes Lumber men are in first place in the team competition with 189, followed by Mission Viejo with 177. The Mission Viejo women are leading with 300 points, followed by Holmes Lumber with 109.