L.A. Invitational Swim Meet : Evans Shows Continued Improvement in Easy Victories

Janet Evans continued her domination of United States women’s swimming with easy victories at the L.A. Invitational Swim Meet.

Evans, 17, already a three-time gold medalist in the 400- and 800-meter freestyles and the 400-meter individual medley, won the 200-meter backstroke and the 400-meter freestyle Friday.

She swam a 2:15.43 in the backstroke (a personal best), edging Silvia Poll, a 1988 silver medalist from Costa Rica, by two seconds.

Then, after breaking the 400 freestyle meet record in the morning preliminaries, Evans shattered it again in the finals, leaving her opponents helpless in her wake as she posted a season-best 4:12.46 (four seconds faster than her morning time).

“Last year, I didn’t even come to this meet,” said Evans, who holds the world record in the 400 with a time of 4:03.85.

“But I guess my new coach (Don Wagner) wanted to see how I was doing on my program. I’m happy. This shows my training is going well.”

Said Wagner, coach of the Fullerton Aquatic Swim Team: “I don’t want to say she will definitely set a new world record because I don’t want to put that kind of pressure on her. But I will say that she has definitely not reached her potential.”

Evans will swim again today at USC’s Olympic Swim Stadium when the L.A. Invitational resumes with preliminaries at 9 a.m. and finals at 5 p.m.

She is scheduled to race in the 200-meter freestyle and the 400-meter individual medley, an event in which she holds the American record (4:37.76), the U.S. Open record (4:38.58) and the meet record (4.49.43).

Other winners Friday: Carrie Steinseifer of the Phoenician Swim Club of Arizona, 100-meter freestyle; Michael Picotte of Swim San Diego, 100-meter freestyle; Sherri Smith of Industry Hills, 200-meter butterfly; Bart Pippenger of Las Vegas, 200 butterfly; Brad Askins of USC, 200-meter backstroke; and Olympian Dan Jorgensen gained a measure of revenge for a loss in the 800-meter freestyle Thursday by beating younger brother and fellow Olympian Lars in the 400-meter freestyle.