SWIMMING / MEET OF CHAMPIONS : Wojdat, Jacob Rally to Win 800 Freestyle Races

Mission Viejo distance freestyle stars Artur Wojdat and Lisa Jacob let their competitors take the lead Thursday afternoon, then they shifted into overdrive in the last half of the 800-meter freestyles for convincing victories on the opening day of the Chrysler Swim Meet of Champions at Mission Viejo International Swimming Complex.

Wojdat passed Lars Jorgensen of Blue Fins Swim Team of San Diego just after the 400 mark, and built a two-second lead in less than 60 seconds. Then, between the 600 and 700 mark, the 23-year-old from Poland pulled ahead by five seconds.

By the time he touched, in eight minutes 6.4 seconds, he was 6.9 seconds ahead of Jorgensen, who will be a senior at USC in the fall.

Wojdat gave an assist to the Nadadores’ massive scoreboard.

“My goal was to finish between 8:05 and 8:08, so when I saw the 6:06 split on the scoreboard after the turn at the 600 I tried to swim the final 200 in two minutes,” Wojdat said.

Nadadores Coach Terry Stoddard, who has coached Wojdat since he came to Mission Viejo in 1985, was elated with Wojdat’s effort.

“For Artur to get after the 800 like that is great,” Stoddard said, “especially the last 300; he closed really well. If there was another (competitor) in there he could have gone right at eight minutes.”

It was the second-fastest 800 that Wojdat has posted in his six years of competing in the 19-year-old Meet of Champions.

“The process was the same,” Wojdat said of his 1988 clocking of 8:05. “You try to take it out at a comfortable pace for the first 400 and then see how you feel and try to bring it home the best you can.”

In the women’s race, Jacob trailed Costa Rica’s Claudia Poll until the 450-meter mark when she caught her at the turn and passed her coming off the wall.

Jacob, 17, pulled away swiftly, building a 4.8-second lead between the 500- and 600-meter marks. While Poll faded--all the way to seventh in her heat and 13th overall--Jacob finished in 8:42.84, some 11.2 seconds ahead of the runner-up, 15-year-old Kari Lyderson of Encinitas YMCA.

Jacob’s 8:42 clocking marked a dramatic drop over her previous best, an 8:47 at the Canada Cup last month in Vancouver. The time is 16th in the world rankings for 1991 and fourth among U.S. swimmers.

“That’s an outstanding swim,” Stoddard said. “There are only a few who have gone 8:42 or better; there are a lot between 8:42 and 8:48. It (8:42) is a whole different ballgame. It seems simple, going 1:05’s (for each 100) instead of 1:06’s, but it puts her in a whole different group of swimmers.”

Stoddard said the improvement from 100-meter splits of 1:06 to 1:05 “seems simple, but it puts her in a whole different group of swimmers.”

Having Poll ahead at the outset was a benefit, said Stoddard.

“That was probably the best thing for Lisa, having someone out in front,” he said. “Her splits faltered a bit after she passed her.”

But not by much. Along with her powerful kick, Jacob’s consistent splitting is her trademark.

“That is what caught our attention, that Lisa could swim the longer races when she was 12 and she split a 1,500 well,” Stoddard said. “That told us she had the ability.”

Jacob, who will be a senior at Capistrano Valley High School in the fall, said she was at a loss to explain the clock inside her head.

“I don’t really think about it, it just kind of happens that way,” she said.

Though Jacob was happy with her time, she remained calm.

“It is a time I wanted to do for a while,” Jacob said. “I am real happy with it. I’m just not the type to cry when I do bad and jump up and down when I do well.”