Pacific 10 Women’s Swimming Championships : Expected Stanford Runaway Is On

Jenna Johnson didn’t need to make excuses. Not after winning the 50-yard freestyle and swimming on two winning relay teams. Not with her Stanford team leading the Pacific 10 Women’s Swimming Championships by more than 100 points.

But she was asked about it as she dripped her way off the deck at the East Los Angeles College Swim Stadium Friday night, so she admitted that, yes, she has a cold. She has missed some workout time and she is on antibiotics.

“Usually a cold doesn’t bother me too much, but this time I had a fever, too,” Johnson said with a bit of a hoarse rasp. “I think it bothered me a little bit, mentally. I didn’t really know what to expect this morning. After (the preliminary heats) this morning I felt better about it.

“I think it’s going to be a pretty good meet.”

To make this first Pac-10 women’s meet more competitive, Johnson would have to be given a bigger handicap than a little cold and fever.

Johnson, the tall redhead from La Habra who has been Stanford’s star since she stole the show at the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. meet last year as a freshman, won the 50 in 23.30 seconds.

She also swam the butterfly leg of the 200-yard medley relay that Stanford won to open Friday’s program and she swam the anchor leg of the 800-yard freestyle relay that Stanford won to wrap up the evening with a total of 459 points.

As expected, the only competition is for second place. With two days of the meet to go, USC was in second place behind Stanford with 352.5 points, UCLA was third with 343, and Cal was fourth with 303.

That included points from the Pac-10 women’s diving meet being held at the University of Arizona. UCLA won the three-meter competition there for 70 more points. It was the only event Stanford didn’t win on the first day of competition.

Second place in the standings was up for grabs going into the final event, the 800-yard freestyle relay. Johnson went into the water just ahead of fellow Olympian Mary T. Meagher, who was swimming the anchor leg for Cal.

Stanford won in 7:18.53, well ahead of Cal, which finished in 7:21.80. Another eight seconds back in the final heat was Arizona, at 7:29.95. But USC, which swam in an earlier heat, finished third by recording a time of 7:29.80.

At some events, you can’t tell the players without a program. At a meet like this, you can’t tell who’s happy from who’s bombing without heat sheets, a list of NCAA qualifying times, a list of season bests and coaches’ commentary.

The Stanford perspective on the final relay? It had nothing to do with the points for winning or the nice swim by Johnson.

Stanford Coach George Haines said, “We were pleased that Aimee Berzins made the 200-yard cut. We swam her on the first leg so she could do that.

“We’re trying to get some more swimmers in the NCAAs.”

Stanford finished third in the NCAA meet last season, but is hoping to give Texas and Florida more of a run this time. Stanford has swimmers like Johnson and Olympian Susan Rapp back, along with an outstanding freshman class with swimmers like Michelle Griglione.

Rapp, the silver medalist in the 200-meter breaststroke in the ’84 Olympics and the defending NCAA champion in the 200-yard individual medley, finished seventh in the 200 IM Friday night in 2:05.71. But Griglione won it in 2:03.16 and Stanford teammate Monica Nieleback was fifth with Stanford teammate Susannah Miller eighth.

Michelle Donahue of Stanford was ninth and Jill Johnson of Stanford 15, to give an example of just how the Cardinal rolled up so many points.

As for concern about Rapp’s performance? Haines said, “Susan will be down to about 2 minutes by the time we get to the NCAAs. She’ll be a factor.”

There’s no need to reach for times once the standard has been met.

Stanford finished 1-2 in the 500-yard freestyle, with Dana Anderson winning and Lisa Gillespie finishing right behind her.

USC rolled up 104 points in that event. Leslie Daland was third, Carol Peterson fifth, Cynthia Woodhead seventh, Kathy Hettche 10th and Lisa Wen 12th.

Any chance that the UCLA coach was pleased with anything he saw in that event? Coach Tom Jahn said that he was. “Kim Rosso (who finished ninth) made the qualifying standard in the 500.”

As the NCAA meet next month continued to hold the attention of the coaches here.

Haines might be a little more concerned about that cold Johnson has if this were the NCAA meet.

Haines said, “Jenna is not really sharp, but when you’re that much faster than everyone else. . . . It’s possible that taking the time off helped her in the 50.

“It might make a difference the next few days in the 100 fly and the 100 free. But she’ll be all right in a couple of weeks.”