UC Irvine Notebook / John Weyler : After Burning Out on Swimming, They’re Living It Up in the Pool Now

Brian and Danielle Pajer are well acquainted with the wonders of genetics. They’re students at UC Irvine, but neither is a biology major. In fact, the Pajers learned their lessons in the pool, not the classroom.

“We both walk like ducks, with our feet turned out,” said Danielle, an 18-year-old freshman.

The good news is they both swim like ducks, too.

The Pajers are breaststrokers--enormously successful breaststrokers when you consider their parallel on-again-off-again careers.

Brian, a 21-year-old junior, holds school records in the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke events. And Danielle is already closing in on the Irvine marks in the same events for women.

“The breaststroke is the only way my mom can swim,” Brian said. “So we both learned to swim with that stroke, following my mom around the pool.”

Just like a couple of ducklings. And they inherited more than a waddle.

“It’s more a flexibility of the knees and ankles that runs in the family,” said Charlie Schober, Irvine’s swimming coach. “It’s not unusual for brothers and sisters to be talented in the same event.”

Actually, it was Brian’s talent in soccer that indirectly resulted in the Pajers’ introduction to the world of chlorine and predawn workouts.

“He was 7 and winning all kinds of medals in soccer,” Danielle said. “I was 5 and wanted to win something, too.”

The family happened on a swim team practicing at a high school near their home in Downey and soon both kids were swimming . . . well, breaststroking. They didn’t know any other stroke when they started.

Doctors told Brian, who has had asthma most of his life, that swimming might help alleviate his breathing problems. The Pajers soon moved to Mission Viejo, in part because of the Nadadore swim program.

The 2-a-day workout regimen and discipline of the Mission Viejo program took a toll on Brian, though.

“I was almost burned out,” Brian said. “I was always sick. I’d pick things up easily and they’d knock me down.”

One day, when he was 14, Brian asked his coach for a Saturday off to go skiing. He was told he could go skiing, but not to come back if he did.

He went skiing and didn’t swim again for 2 1/2 years.

Danielle, meanwhile, was having similar problems with the Nadadores.

“They wanted me to start double-days,” she said. “I wanted to have friends and a life. Anyway, when your mom’s driving you to workouts, you either both go or neither of you goes.”

She took almost 3 years off.

Danielle tried long jumping her freshman year at Mission Viejo High School (“It was fun, but I was no good”), didn’t compete in sports as a sophomore and returned to swimming as a junior (“because I knew I could be good at that”).

It didn’t happen overnight, though.

“I got in the water and it brought back so many bad memories,” she said, shaking her head. “And I was horrible too!”

Within a month, however, Danielle was back in form, helping the Diablos to the 1987 Southern Section championship.

By this time, Brian already had returned to the pool. He had decided that swimming was his best chance for the best college education.

“Brian’s very focused,” Danielle said. “If he wants something, he gets it.”

He got his scholarship to Irvine and repaid the favor by winning conference titles in both breaststroke events as a freshman and sophomore before taking last year off to try to make the Olympic team.

Brian is back with the Anteaters after finishing 18th in the 200-meter breaststroke during the Olympic Trials last summer. And he’s swimming better than ever. He set meet records in both breaststroke races at the recent USC Invitational.

“Not many swimmers are able to quit for any significant length of time and come back and do this well,” Schober said. “A lot of people in this sport swim because they always have. It’s habit. But when you come back, it’s because you want to.

“I think that’s a mental advantage. Unfortunately, you lose a lot of ground on other swimmers.”

So far, the disadvantages of the layoff have eluded the Pajers. Sort of like water off a duck’s back.

OK, so what’s it like to work out in the same pool with your big brother every day?

Danielle: “He helps me a lot with my stroke, and if he sees I’m goofing off, he’ll say something. It’s good that he does, but if I’m having a bad workout and already frustrated, I don’t really need his self-righteous attitude.”

Brian: “When I see something she could be doing better, I tell her. She doesn’t always appreciate it, though.”

Schober: “They’re mostly into their own thing during workouts, but there are some special kinds of encouragement there. It’s almost always positive. . . . But, hey, they are brother and sister.”

Basketball Coach Bill Mulligan, never one to pull any punches when it comes to criticizing his players, is equally hard on himself.

Regarding his decision to go with a full-court press that was an embarrassing failure during Georgia State’s 109-84 rout in the first game of the season, Mulligan said:

“My brilliant coaching cost the school $10,000 to $12,000 by not getting into the final (of Irvine’s Freedom Bowl tournament). I’m the one who’s always complaining about the crowds, and we had 2,500 fans the first night, chomping at the bit to see us play Maryland.

“I’ll take the blame. We were trying to do something we weren’t capable of doing. My biggest error was assuming we could guard the ball (stop players from beating the press by dribbling through it).

“Hell, I assumed a lot of things. After 33 years of coaching, you’d think I’d know never to assume anything.”

Mulligan has not canned the press altogether, however. He says the Anteaters still might use it in desperation to force the tempo if an opponent refuses to run.

Anteater Notes

The only supposed patsy of the first four teams on the men’s basketball schedule was Georgia State, and the Crimson Panthers ripped the Anteaters in the opening round of their own tournament. “The big-time schools buy wins in the early season,” Coach Bill Mulligan said. “USC plays Howard. Duke is supposed to be No. 1 and they allowed Citadel to play them. And Georgetown goes to the Islands to beat up on Hawaii-Luau.” Actually, it’s Hawaii- Loa , but with an enrollment of 500, there probably aren’t many alums around to complain. And the Hoyas did have a feast Friday night in Hawaii, rolling to 105-69 victory. . . . Luckily for the players and Mulligan’s staff, Irvine came back to beat Texas Christian the night after being embarrassed by Georgia State. Assistant Bob Thate, a strong advocate of the running game, had been telling Mulligan all summer that the new scheme would bring Irvine national recognition and maybe even a visit from television commentator and college basketball guru Dick Vitale. The day after the loss, Mulligan turned to Thate and screamed, “When the hell is Vitale coming by with that TV crew?” . . . Junior forward Rob Doktorczyk is sidelined with bursitis in both knees and could be out for 2 weeks.

Freshman Lanee Butler, the only female sailor in the competition, finished second last week in the Boardsailing Nationals at the U.S. Naval Academy. Navy’s John Passant won the title. Butler is a member of the U.S. National Boardsailing team. . . . Irvine’s golf team finished 12th in the 16-team University of San Francisco Invitational at the Olympic Club last week. Steve Puck, Joey Sugar and Scott McGihon all shot 238 for the tournament to finish tied for 37th. . . . Junior Tom Warde scored eight goals as the water polo team took sixth place in the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. championships last week. Warde’s finished with 108 goals this season, the second-highest mark in school history. Gary Figueroa holds the school single-season record with 110 in 1977.