THE SIDELINES : Evans Breaks 2nd Swim Record

Janet Evans, who already has set an American record in the 500-yard freestyle, led qualifiers today in the 400 individual medley as defending champion Stanford made a charge at front-running Texas in the NCAA women’s swimming and diving championships.

No. 1-ranked Stanford trailed Texas 202 to 177 points after the first day, when Evans broke the oldest American record in women’s swimming with a time of 4 minutes, 34.39 seconds in the 500 Thursday.

Tracy Caulkins, formerly of Florida, held the record of 4:36.25 set 11 years ago.

Evans, a freshman from Placentia and a three-time Olympic gold medalist in 1988, was timed in 4:13.35 today in the preliminaries in the 400 medley. Caulkins also holds that American record, 4:04.63, set in 1981.