SWIMMING LOS ANGELES INVITATIONAL : Evans Comes Home to Show Winning 800 Form

On the surface nothing was different about Janet Evans on Thursday. She was stroking along in the 800-meter freestyle at a relentless pace, increasing space between herself and her competitors in the Los Angeles Invitational at USC.

Within the first 200 meters, Evans led by seven seconds. By the 300 mark, she was out of reach with an 11-second edge. When Evans, a three-time 1988 Olympic gold medalist, finished in 8 minutes 35.66 seconds, she had recorded the seventh-fastest time in the world this year and a meet record.

Her time was almost 15 seconds faster than the 1987 mark of 8:50.35, held by Leslie Daland, and more than 20 seconds ahead of runner-up Stacie Dorman of Mission Viejo.

It was typically dominant distance freestyle by Evans, who set the world record in the 800 in 1989 in 8:16.22.

But things have changed for Evans since the 1989 Pan Pacific Games in Tokyo. After two seasons at Stanford under Coach Richard Quick, she left Palo Alto in April for Austin, Tex., and Coach Mark Schubert.

Her performance Thursday was her first in California since she made the change.

“I’m a little more confident now with my swimming and my ‘splitting,’ ” Evans said. “I’m not dying at the end anymore. My training is better as far as an aerobic base.”

Evans said she has adjusted to Schubert, the 1992 Olympic women’s coach, because his training is similar to that of her former Fullerton coach, Bud McAllister, an assistant to Schubert at Mission Viejo in the 1970s.

In a sibling rivalry, Lars Jorgensen, 20, beat his brother Dan, 23, to win the men’s 800 freestyle.

The brothers wound up in Lanes 4 and 5, where they could keep a close eye on each other.

But Dan let Lars take off too soon, and the three-second lead he gained between the 100 and 200 mark went unchallenged.

Lars increased it to seven seconds by the 600 mark and touched in 8:09.72, well ahead of Dan’s 8:16.41 but shy of the meet record 8:09.46 that Lars set in 1989.

“It ties my unshaved best time, so I’m happy with that. But nationals is only two weeks away, and I gotta start swimming fast,” Lars said.