Pacific 10 Women’s Swimming Championships : Meagher Will Stick Around for 1988 Olympics

Mary T. Meagher, the world record-holder in both the 100- and 200-meter butterfly events and the winner of three gold medals in the 1984 Olympic Games, said Saturday night that she would continue to swim through 1988 so that she can compete for the U.S. Olympic team at Seoul, South Korea.

Meagher, a 22-year-old senior at California, said that as she closed in on the Pac-10 meet she is competing in this weekend at East Los Angeles College and as she looked forward to her final National Collegiate Athletic Assn. meet, she decided that she did have the desire to go on.

Meagher is the only American swimmer who has been competing for national teams since the 1979 Pan Am Games. She had been expected to stay in competition for her second Olympics, but she had not announced the decision until Saturday.

“I just decided in the last couple of weeks,” Meagher said. “I’ve been concentrating on the NCAAs and thinking that that would probably be my last major meet and I just decided I would try to compete another year.

“I’m looking forward to taking some time off this spring and summer. But then I’ll start training again in the fall. I’m not sure where. I have one class left, so it might be at Cal.”

Meagher beat Jenna Johnson of Stanford in the 100-yard butterfly during the second night of competition in the three-day women’s Pac-10 swim meet.

Meagher’s victory kept Stanford from sweeping the night’s individual titles. Cardinal winners included Michelle Griglione won the 400-yard individual medley, Susan Rapp the 100-yard breaststroke, Michelle Donahue the 100-yard backstroke and Aimee Berzins the 200-yard freestyle.

Stanford also won the final relay, the 400-yard medley, but was disqualified in the 200-yard freestyle relay.

Going into the final day, Stanford held a commanding lead with 894 points. USC improved its hold on second place, finishing with 756.5 points Saturday night to 720.5 for UCLA, 686 for Cal and 658.5 for Arizona State.

USC Coach Don LaMont was optimistic that the Trojans could hold onto second place today. He said, “I’m very pleased with where we are right now. The way I look at it, Stanford was ahead by more than 100 points after the first day. We swam them pretty even today. And we’re pretty strong in a couple of the final events.”

UCLA can expect to pick up some diving points from the meet taking place at the University of Arizona, but Coach Tom Jahn really didn’t expect to catch USC over the last few events.

And nobody was even considering challenging Stanford.

Asked if she felt frustrated being in that kind of position, Meagher said, “When I was a freshman or a sophomore it would have bothered me, but now I’ve gotten used to it. It’s important that we meet our team goals. We’re real close to UCLA and USC, so we’re doing what we wanted to do.

“To tell you the truth, I was having a real hard time getting up for this meet. But when I started thinking about going against Jenna in the 100 (butterfly) tonight, I thought about what it meant to the team and I really wanted to win then.”

Johnson beat Meagher in the 100-yard butterfly at the NCAA meet last year, but Meagher wasn’t even too upset about that. Meagher said, “We both went under the American record, and it was my best time in about five years. I couldn’t be disappointed in that.