U.S. Open Swimming : Jager, Oppel Finish in a Dead Heat : U.S. Coach Pleased With Americans’ Overall Performance

UCLA swimmers Tom Jager, who set a world record in the 50-meter freestyle on the first night of the U.S. Swimming Open here, and Craig Oppel, who won the 200-meter freestyle on the second night of the meet, met on the final night at 100 meters and finished in a dead heat, tying for first place in 50.36 seconds.

Other Bruins to score in the 100 Sunday were Steve Creamer, John Sauerland, Brian Jones and David Kluth, who finished 8th, 12th, 13th and 15th, respectively, to give UCLA 59 points in the event.

It wasn’t enough, though, as the University of Florida dominated the 200-meter individual medley and the 200-meter butterfly and won the collegiate team title, with UCLA finishing second.

Florida’s women also won their collegiate title, while Mission Viejo won both club titles.

U.S. Coach Richard Quick said that, overall, he was pleased with what he saw from the Americans. “Our swimmers were in various stages of conditioning, but I was pleased with the kids who were shaved,” Quick said.

“I was hoping that more teams would take this meet seriously and approach it the way Florida, UCLA and SMU did. The Florida and Texas women were really geared for it.

“Actually, this is one big experiment to swim long course in December and I think it’s really going to pay off.”

Most coaches were reluctant to interrupt their short-course training for collegiate meets and the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. this spring in order to train for this meet.

Quick, however, said he believes that in the interest of international competition, the NCAA meet should be viewed “as a stepping stone and not as an end in itself.”

UCLA Coach Ron Ballatore has said that he thinks the swimmers can train long course in the fall and peak for this meet and profit by that training and that emotional lift when they switch to short-course training.

That remains to be seen. But it was obvious that the UCLA sprinters were ready for this meet.

Ballatore has been drawing the top sprinters ever since he coached Robin Leamy and Bill Barrett.

“Once you get the reputation as a great sprint coach, it just perpetuates itself,” Jager said. “Sure it helps all of us to have this kind of competition in workouts.

“You’re not going to have everybody going fast all of the time, but you’re going to have a lot of good, quality workouts.”

Oppel was surprised at how much he has improved in the 100.

“I came in to the meet thinking that I was going for my NCAA cuts (qualifying times),” he said. “But when I saw how close I was to Tom off the wall (at the turn) I figured, ‘What the heck.’ Definitely, this was a confidence booster for me.”

Matt Biondi of Cal, the world record-holder in the event, finished third. But he’s been playing water polo instead of resting for this meet.

Jager was the man to beat from the start. Oppel caught him over the last few meters.

In other events, Silke Horner of East Germany set her second U.S. Open record of the meet with a time of 2:29.78 in the 200-meter breaststroke, while Tom Ponting of the University of Calgary set a pool record when he won the 200-meter butterfly in 1:58.69.

Steve Bentley also set a pool record with his surprise victory in the 200-meter breaststroke. Bentley won in 2:17.85.

Bentley is a student at USC but, because of delays in his transferring procedure, he will not be eligible to train with the USC swim team until January. He’s been training himself and he was amazed at his swim here.

“Surprised?” he asked. “I took four seconds off my time since August. This was a very big race for me. Now, I see myself improving every time I shave.

“I’m looking forward to having a coach to tell me what I’m doing wrong so I can improve even more.”

Swiming Notes

Tom Jager of UCLA won the Phillips Performance Award for the meet for his world-record performance in the 50-meter freestyle Friday night. . . . Craig Oppel of UCLA was the high-point finisher for the men with 55 1/2 points for finishing first in the 200-meter freestyle, tied for first in the 100-meter freestyle and second in the 400-meter freestyle. Betsy Mitchell of the University of Texas and the U.S. team was high-point winner for the women with 56 points for finishing first in the 100- and 200-meter backstrokes and third in the 100-meter freestyle. . . . Bobby Patton, who finished third in the men’s 200-meter butterfly Sunday night, is making a comeback after two operations for lymphatic cancer during the last two years. Patton, a member of the U.S. team in 1982, is 23 and a graduate of SMU.