SWIMMING / THERESA MUNOZ : Mission Viejo’s Jacob Mastering the Long and Short of Winning

When Mission Viejo teen-ager Lisa Jacob earned a berth on the Canada Cup team last August, she was pleased. At last she would reap the rewards of long hours of training by joining the United States national junior team on an international trip.

But before Jacob traveled to Vancouver last month for the Canada Cup, she had passed the junior team by, having swum fast enough at the Spring Nationals in Federal Way, Wash., in April to earn a spot on the Pan American Games squad, which will compete Aug. 11-17 at Havana.

The Pan American team is essentially the U.S. national B team, second only to the contingent that will represent the United States at the Pan Pacific Games Aug. 22-25 at Edmonton.

Most of the 1992 U.S Olympic team is expected to come from the two 46-member squads.

Jacob’s chances are enhanced by her mastery of several events. She can swim the 100-meter freestyle and the 1,500-meter freestyle, each in national-caliber time.

She doesn’t lose anything in between, either, as her recent efforts in the 200, 400 and 800 freestyle events suggest.

At the Spring Nationals, Jacob was fifth in the 200 freestyle in 2 minutes 2.50 seconds, fifth in the 1,500 freestyle (16:50.04), sixth in the 800 freestyle (8:47.58), 11th in the 100 freestyle (57.56), and 12th in the 400 freestyle (4:19.66).

Seven weeks later, at the Canada Cup, she won three gold medals and four silvers, leading the winning effort of the 55-member U.S. team.

Her most impressive performance was a silver-medal-winning 4:18 in the 400 freestyle, her best time. And that was without a rest from training.

“I didn’t expect to go that fast because we were practicing really hard before I went up there,” Jacob said.

Jacob, 17, emerged on the national scene only 14 months ago, when she won a bronze medal in the 1,650-yard freestyle at the 1990 Spring Nationals in Nashville, Tenn. As the highest finisher among first-time participants, she was voted rookie of the meet.

Four months passed, however, before she discovered the extent of her abilities at the shorter distances, 100 and 200 freestyle. Not only did she win both races at the Junior Olympics West in Irvine, she set a national junior record of 2:03.41 in the 200.

“Her range is going to make her a great swimmer,” Mission Viejo Coach Terry Stoddard said. “She has an excellent kick. It is a weapon she uses incredibly well. I’ve rarely seen anyone with her intensity the last 12 1/2 meters. She goes like the dickens into a new speed, a faster speed.”

Stoddard got an inkling of what Jacob could do in Nashville when she passed four swimmers over the last half of the 1,650.

“One by one, she took them apart,” Stoddard said. “In the last 12 1/2 yards she had one more person to run down, and she threw in the legs and did it.”

Jacob, a naturally talented kicker at longer distances, has developed a sprint kick throughweight training and special drills.

Her kick is particularly beneficial coming off turns.

“She can streamline past the (backstroke) flags to her waist,” Stoddard said. “Most women break out with their hands at the flags. It enables her to minimize her stroke by one to 1 1/2 strokes per length.”

Jacob, 5 feet 6 and 125 pounds, grew up a mile from Mission Viejo’s swimming complex and joined the Nadadore club when she was 7.

She was not unusually fast as an age-group swimmer, staying in the middle of her training groups. Her rise to national prominence parallels her participation in twice-daily workouts.

The schedule demands a 9 p.m. bedtime and an alarm clock set for 4:15 a.m. In the chilly predawn, Jacob dips into the water at 4:50 and leaves at 7 to prepare for classes at Capistrano Valley High, where she will be a senior next fall.

By 2:45 she is back at the pool for an afternoon session that lasts until 6:15.

With study habits that have produced a 3.8 grade-point average, there is little time for leisure, although Jacob does go to the beach and the movies with friends on Friday and Saturday nights, and her Sundays are free.

She is preparing for the Chrysler Swim Meet of Champions in her home pool Thursday through Sunday, but at the same time she looks ahead to the Olympic trials next March at Indianapolis.

“I wouldn’t say my chances are great,” Jacob said. “But there is a chance.”

World record-holders Matt Biondi and Melvin Stewart headline the field for the Meet of Champions.

About 40% of the U.S. national team is competing, including 1991 world champion backstroker Jeff Rouse, American individual medley record-holder Summer Sanders and Northridge’s Kristine Quance, the world’s fourth-ranked 200 breaststroker.

Swimmers from the Netherlands, Canada, Japan, Spain, Costa Rica, Australia and Poland are also entered and the foreign contingent includes Poland’s Artur Wojdat, the bronze medalist in the 400-meter freestyle at the 1991 World Championships in Perth, Australia, as well as Costa Rican backstroker Silvia Poll and Dutch sprinter V.V. Plaats.

Among the interesting matchups: Biondi, Steve Crocker and Adam Schmitt in the 50 freestyle; Stewart and Australia’s Dave Wilson in the 200 butterfly; Biondi and Santa Barbara’s Brian Alderman in the 100 butterfly; Eric Namesnik and USC’s Dave Wharton in the 400 individual medley; Sanders, Jenna Johnson and Crissy(cq) Ahmann-Leighton in the 100 butterfly; Lori Heisick, Tori DeSilvia and 14-year-old Emily Short in the 100 breaststroke.

Except for Thursday, which is limited to 800 freestyle timed finals at 4 p.m., preliminaries begin each day at 10 a.m. and finals start at 5 p.m.

Organizers for the meet, part of the Grand Prix series, were able to attract a quality field because they matched the $6,600 the national governing body, U.S. Swimming Inc., kicked in for travel expenses. Moreover, Nadadore team parents opened their homes to 175 swimmers from across the country.

World champion 100-meter breaststroker Linley Frame is among six members of the Australian Pan Pacific team who have confirmed their entries in the Los Angeles Invitational, July 25-28 at USC.

Janet Evans of Placentia, Biondi and Sanders are the top Americans in a field that includes sprinter Joe Hudepohl, who set three national high school records earlier this spring.

The meet marks Evans’ first competition in Southern California since leaving Stanford University and Coach Richard Quick for Texas Aquatics and Coach Mark Schubert, the 1992 Olympic coach. A contingent of 22 Pan Pacific and Pan American team members from Texas Aquatics is also entered.

Vasily Ivanov of the Soviet Union clocked a 1:01.45 on June 11, tying the men’s world 100-meter breaststroke record set by Hungarian Norbert Rosza at the World Championships Jan. 7.

Brian Jacobson of Downey High School earned swimmer of the meet honors at the National Interscholastic Swim Coaches Assn. All-America Invitational at Winnetka, Ill., with victories in the 50-and 100-yard freestyles in 21.17 and 46.23, respectively.

Three other Southern Californians won national titles: Amy Ward of Trabuco Hills in the 200 freestyle, 1:51.52; Eric Diehl of Mission Viejo in the 200 freestyle, 1:38.97, and Michelle Ham of Fountain Valley in the 200 individual medley, 2:05.48.