U.S. Olympic Festival : Hundeby Finishes 3rd in Race : Woodbridge Swimmer Loses to Herron in 400-Meter Freestyle

Chad Hundeby of Woodbridge High School, who set two Southern Section freestyle records this year, finished third in the 400-meter freestyle Tuesday night at the U.S. Olympic Festival.

Hundeby, 16, who established Southern Section records in the 200-yard and 500-meter freestyle events at the Southern Section championships, finished the 400-meter race in 4 minutes 4.35 seconds.

Steve Herron, 17, of Kirkland, Wash., a high school All-America in the 500-yard freestyle the past two years, won with a time of 4:02.75. Jeff Thibault of Houston was second in 4:03.54.

In the 125.5-pound wrestling division, Carl Glover of Fullerton was decisioned by Ken Chertow of Huntington, W.Va., 21-6, at 4:26. Chertow then advanced in the competition by defeating Glover, who defaulted with an injury.

In other swimming events Tuesday, Sarah Anderson, bound for California this fall, was the only competitor to set a festival record.

Anderson, 17, of Moreno Valley, Calif., won the 200-meter freestyle in 2:03.67, beating the mark of 2:04.12 set by Mary Wayte in 1981.

The first gold medal of the festival was awarded to 16-year-old Chas Morton of Franklin, Tenn., who won the men’s 200 individual medley in 2:07.00, almost two seconds faster than Andy Lloyd of Mercer Island, Wash.

Morton, who holds more than 30 national age group records, pulled away from his competitors during the third segment of the 200 medley, the breaststroke. He swims for the Nashville Aquatic Club, which served as a training ground for three-time Olympic gold medalist Tracy Caulkins.

In the men’s 200 backstroke, Greg Burgess, 15, of Jacksonville, Fla., won the gold medal in a time of 2:06.41. J.J. Freitag, 16, of Richmond, Va., easily won the men’s 100 breaststroke in 1:06.59, and Nadine Takai, 17, of Waipahu, Hawaii, won the women’s 400 individual medley in 4:59.30.

“I felt pretty good this morning during the workouts and I felt I’d have a good swim,” said Burgess. “I did a little better than I expected. The pool is very fast and felt very good.”

Alabama-bound Jon Olsen, 18, of Jonesboro, Ark., edged Eric Boland of Los Alamos, N.M., in the men’s 50 freestyle, posting a time of 23.68. In the women’s 100 butterfly, LaDonnis Loury, 14, of Lincoln, Neb., won convincingly in 1:02.01.

Jodi Wilson, 15, of Plano, Tex., won the women’s 100 backstroke in 1:04.29. Lorraine Perkins of Largo, Fla., who won the event at last year’s festival in Houston, finished third in 1:05.55.