U.S. OLYMPIC FESTIVAL LOS ANGELES 1991 : SWIMMING : West Right in Saying Best Was Yet to Come

After winning the 100-meter breast-stroke in record time on the first night of U.S. Olympic Festival competition, Steve West of Huntington Beach pointed out that his best event is the 200 breaststroke.

It proved to be a fair warning Sunday when West scored a wire-to-wire victory in the 200 for his second gold medal and second Festival record at McDonald’s Swim Stadium at USC.

West’s time of 2 minutes 18.12 seconds shattered Greg Rhondenbaugh’s 1982 mark by almost four seconds and earned him a world ranking of 24th.

The next four finishers also were under the record.

West, 19, knocked 1.9 seconds off his best time.

Only three months ago, he finished 19th at spring nationals in 2:21.39 after missing several weeks of practice because of chicken pox.

“It means a lot to me to drop that much time,” said West, who was cheered on by his teammates from the Huntington Beach-based Golden West Swim Club.

Ian Mull also broke a Festival record on the second of three days of competition.

Mull swam the 400 individual medley in 4:27.09, well under Roger Vonjouanne’s 1982 record of 4:29.15.

At the halfway point Mull, a 17-year-old from East Lansing, Mich., was in third place, but a blistering breaststroke leg gave him a slight lead. “That (breaststroke) is my weakest stroke, but I knew that was the leg I had to do it on,” Mull said.

A hard-fought final stretch of freestyle enabled Mull to hold off Kevin Smith and Ryan Berube, who combined with Mull to record the three fastest times in Festival history. “I saw those two guys coming and I thought ‘Wow, I better get out of there,’ ” Mull said. “When you’re coming home (finishing) you gotta go for the gold.”

The record pace was set by Charlie Santostefano, who faded to fourth.

Santostefano was nearly two full seconds ahead of Mull and Smith after the butterfly and backstroke segments. “He suckered me out there,” Smith said. “You can’t tell if you are going slow or if he’s going really fast when he’s that far ahead.”

Scott Wester of Huntington Beach won the 200 freestyle in 1:52.21 for his second individual gold medal in as many nights.

After winning the 50 freestyle on Saturday, Wester hoped his competitors would view him as a sprinter and count him out.

But as a former distance freestyler Wester had plenty of endurance, which served him well on the 800 freestyle relay when he anchored the gold medal-winning South.

In the 800 freestyle, Alexis Larsen, 14, of Pacific Palisades turned a close race between herself, Trina Jackson and Kari Lydersen into a runaway with a strong move with 150 meters left.

Larsen’s 8:46.54 was the sixth fastest time in Festival history, 10 seconds better than her previous best and her first U.S. Olympic Trials qualifying time.