U.S. Swimming National Long Course Championships : UCLA’s Oppel Wins 200 Freestyle and Seems to Be Right on Schedule

It was not so many years ago that Alabama Coach Don Gambril, then the United States national coach, was characterizing Craig Oppel as just a big ol’ raw kid out of Iowa, long on strength but still trying to figure out how to flip a turn, a kid of obvious potential who would be right on schedule for the 1988 Olympic Games.

Oppel knew that Gambril said those things about him because he read it in The Sporting News. He didn’t get that pep talk on the deck.

“Are you kidding? The national coach wasn’t talking to me at that meet,” Oppel said. “I was going around saying, ‘Oh, that’s Mary T. (Meagher)! Gosh, is that Rowdy (Gaines)?’ ”

And how did he do in that first national meet? “I sucked eggs,” Oppel said.

It was different Wednesday evening when Oppel, who this fall will be a junior at UCLA, won his first national title in the Phillips 66/U.S. Swimming National Long Course Championships.

Oppel swam the 200-meter freestyle in 1 minute 48.88 seconds, the third-fastest time in the world this year, as he beat, among others, American record-holder Matt Biondi and earned himself a spot on the Pan Pacific team that will compete in Australia next month.

After the race, Biondi said: “Did you see this guy go blowing past me in the last 50? Bubbles, bubbles everywhere.”

Oppel did finish strong, with the crowd roaring for a record. But Oppel was not in the least disappointed that he was off Biondi’s American record of 1:47.89.

“I just wanted to win,” he said. “This is a landmark victory for me. It’s the first time in lots and lots of trying that I’ve been able to beat these guys.”

The record of the day belonged to David Wharton, who broke his own 400-meter individual medley American record in a preliminary heat and then lowered it again in winning the title. His 4:17.81 in the final was the second-fastest time ever, just behind the 4:17.41 world record time set by Canada’s Alex Bauman in the ’84 Olympics.

Wharton swam in this meet for the Foxcatcher Club of Philadelphia. He’ll be a freshman at USC this fall.

Wharton is 50% deaf, so he can’t hear the crowd when he’s swimming and didn’t know that he was on a world-record pace. “But I am aware of the waving and crowd movement,” he said. “I could see my team members at the end of the lane. . . . I really can’t tell the difference between four-tenths of a second.”

Wharton’s family in Philadelphia called the press trailer, which is parked behind the start/finish end of the pool, minutes before his race began. Mary T. Meagher, who is taking this summer off to work as a press aide, stood on the steps of the trailer holding the phone out so that they could hear the announcer calling the race. She also added her own play-by-play to be sure they knew of his progress.

Janet Evans of Placentia, who on Monday set a world record in the 800-meter freestyle, became the meet’s first double winner when she won the women’s 400-meter individual medley Wednesday. Her time of 4:41.74 was the second-best in the world this year.

“After I got out of the water a girl told me, ‘If you had finished with a 1:01 like you did in the 800, you would have had the record,’ ” Evans said, shaking her head in disbelief. “The IM is a lot harder for me than the 800. . . . “The (butterfly) is my weakest stroke, but we’ve been working on it a lot. I’m usually faster in the breaststroke. I’m faster if there’s somebody ahead of me--but I guess if you want to swim that kind of time, there can’t be anyone ahead of you.”

Francie O’Leary of the Click Tucson Swim Team, who will be a junior at Arizona this fall, won her first national title with an unspectacular 2:01.27 in the women’s 200-meter freestyle. But, like Oppel, she was just thrilled to have her first victory.

Oppel credits his coach, UCLA’s Ron Ballatore, and a lot of hard work for his rise to national prominence.

As to whether he thinks that Gambril’s prediction of four years ago--that he would be ready for the ’88 Games--would be on the money, Oppel said, “We’ll see in ’88. I hope so. But you can go up and down so quickly. A slip of anything makes such a big difference in a race like this.

“On the day of the trials, any little thing could go wrong. But I sure hope I’ll be in there. . . .

“Matt had told me that he took some time off, so he’s not at his best right now. Come the fall, everybody’s going to train really hard.”

Biondi, who finished fourth in the 200 behind Oppel, Troy Dalbey and Matt Cetlinski, really hadn’t expected to finish much higher.

“I knew I wasn’t in the best shape for that distance, since I’ve only been back training hard for about four weeks,” Biondi said. “But I was pleased with the way I swam a smart race. A lot of racing is the mental part, you know.

“I always want to swim this race the way I swam it tonight--the first 50 easy and controlled, build in the middle 100, but today I had to leave the last 50 up to chance.

“I was still in there at the wall after the third 100 but, after that, it was like knowing that the gas gauge was on empty.

“I wasn’t really surprised to see Oppel blow past me like that. He has that kind of speed--48.8 is a hell of a swim. I knew he kind of bagged it in the morning.”

Oppel’s preliminary time was 1:49.84, one of three times under 1:50. That bodes well for the U.S. 800-meter relay team. Only twice have the Americans had four swimmers under the 1:50 mark in one field, and that kind of a field produced the famous “Grossbusters” team that beat Michael Gross and the West German team for the gold in ’84.

Swimming Notes

The San Jose club, with Troy Dalbey anchoring, won the men’s 800-meter relay and finished the day in third place in the overall men’s team standings. Mission Bay led the men’s standings, followed by Concord Pleasant Hills. . . . Pine Crest won the women’s relay and moved into fourth place in the women’s standings. Mission Bay also led the women’s standings, followed by Greater Pensacola Aquatic Club and Fullerton Aquatic Swim Team. . . . If Janet Evans had competed, alone, against the other teams in the women’s 800-meter relay, her time in the 800 Monday would have placed her eighth. But her team did not enter the relays.