National Short-Course Swimming Championships : Cohen Wins Again, Finally Gets a Break

After Texas won the NCAA women’s swimming title two weeks ago, several of the team’s members chose to skip the National Short-Course Swimming Championships at East Los Angeles College. Tiffany Cohen was not among them.

Cohen, swimming this week for the Mission Viejo Nadadores, won the 1,650-yard women’s freestyle Saturday night to become the meet’s high-point winner. On the first night of the meet, she set the American record in the 1,000-yard freestyle, and on Thursday night she won the 500-yard freestyle. She also finished third in the 400-yard individual medley.

Cohen’s 76 points helped Mission Viejo run away with the women’s team title over Industry Hills, 693 points to 198, and the overall title. Holmes Lumber of Florida won the men’s title over Mission Viejo, 376 to 364 1/2.

Now, at last, after swimming the most grueling races one more time, Cohen will take a break. After all, as she explained, “I’ve been training hard for 10 years. I don’t want to get burned out.”

She’ll take a week. One whole week of her life when she won’t touch the water. And then she’ll train nice and easy for about a month before getting serious again.

“I came to this meet to help (Mission Viejo) win,” Cohen said. “I owe Mark (Schubert, the Nadadores’ coach) a lot, and I had promised him I would swim this time.”

Cohen won the 1,650 in 16:00.83, not even shooting for her American record of 15:46.54.

She stroked alongside second-place finisher Kim Brown, a 15-year-old from Mission Viejo, for the first 60 lengths of the race before starting to pull away over the last six lengths in the 25-yard pool.

“I’m tired tonight,” she said. “It’s been a really long season for me. . . . I didn’t go as fast as I could have.

“I was basically swimming to win. If Kim had gone faster, I would have gone faster. . . . I was holding her off as much as possible, but I had to throw in some fast hundreds to get ahead.”

Early in the race, the lights went out in the swim stadium, leaving the swimmers to compete by the underwater lights. “That did distract me a little bit,” Cohen said. “For a while, I didn’t think about the pain. I was wondering if they’d stop the race. I didn’t want to start over.”

But the race went on and she earned her break.

There are some international meets coming up this year--the Monaco Invitational, for example--where Cohen will compete. But the next big challenge will be the world championships in 1986. That’s what she’s most looking forward to.

As she said earlier in the meet: “This summer I’m not going to train as hard, because next year is really important. It’s important to show the people we didn’t see in the Olympics that we’re better.”

Mike O’Brien of Mission Viejo also swept the distance events, adding the 1,650-yard title to his 1,000 and 500 titles. O’Brien was not challenged as he completed the race in 14:41.57 to become the men’s high point winner with 75 points.

O’Brien also won the Phillips Performance Award for his American record in the 1,000 Tuesday night.

“We needed the leadership of people like Tiffany and Mike O’Brien,” Schubert said. “When the ball gets rolling, it’s easier for everyone else to swim fast. They got us started off right with their record swims. Mike’s swim was fabulous. Considering how many days he had to swim hard (a week ago), for him to come back with his best time was superhuman.”

In one of the closest races of the night, Olympians Mary T. Meagher and Jenna Johnson vied for the 100-yard butterfly title. Meagher, the Olympic gold medalist and world record-holder at 100 meters, won in a touch with a time of 53.36 seconds.

Pablo Morales won the men’s 100-yard butterfly in 47.03. Morales, the silver medalist in the 100-meter event in the Olympics, had the third-fastest 100-yard performance ever in his preliminary swim. He also has the top two, including his American record of 46.52 set in the NCAA meet.

There were no upsets in the backstroke events, either, as Betsy Mitchell, an Olympic silver medalist at 100 meters, won the women’s 100-yard event and Rick Carey, the Olympic gold medalist in both backstroke distances, won the men’s 100.

Tom Genz, a 19-year-old freshman at SMU, won the men’s 100-yard breaststroke and Jenny Hau, a 15-year-old from Mission City won the women’s title. The women’s breaststroke events were a weak link for the last U.S. Olympic team, so the race is on to identify potential talent for the 1988 team. Hau was a surprise winner over Kathy Smith, 20, a junior at Stanford who was third in the event at the NCAA meet, and Tracey McFarlane, 18, who won the NCAA title.

In the women’s 400-yard medley relay, the Mission Viejo A team finished first and the Mission Viejo B team was second. The Golden Bear Club won the men’s relay.

Swimming Notes Nadean Hudson, 18, of Ventura, and Mark Yakota, 17, of Mission Viejo, were named rookies of the meet. . . . Tom Jager of UCLA was second in men’s point totals with 64. . . . The U.S. team going to Monaco for the May 25-26 meet will be: Matt Biondi, Jeff Kostoff, Jager, Mike O’Brien, Matt Rankin, Doug Gjertsen, Tiffany Cohen, Mary Wayte, Tami Bruce, Juliane Brossman, Betsy Mitchell, and Jenna Johnson. . . . Coach of the team will be Karen Moe Thornton, head women’s coach at the University of California. . . . Mark Spitz showed up Saturday night to help present medals. . . . Recently retired Olympians who were at the meet Saturday night included Steve Lundquist, Jeff Float and Tracy Caulkins.