Swimmer Earns Cheers, But He’s Just Happy to Be Here : Games: Culmination of summer recreation programs stresses participation to South Bay youths.

Sure he’d train more, compete more, devote more to the sport, but Jason Sullivan simply doesn’t have time.

Sullivan, 10, won a silver and gold medal in his divisions of the 25- and 50-yard freestyle swimming events at the Eastlake/South Bay Summer Games on Saturday.

Swimming was one of four sports played at various Southwestern College venues, with hundreds of South Bay youths participating in this third year of the games. For some, they were the highlight of summer-long recreation programs coming to a close.

For Sullivan, who was born with cerebral palsy, it was a chance to swim against competitors he normally wouldn’t meet. It was the first time the games, at least in swimming, didn’t hold separate heats for the physically challenged athletes.

Laurel Granquist, Sullivan’s coach, said it was important to let her swimmers--Alex Peetz and Misael Rodriguez also swam and won medals--mix with the rest of the competitors.

“They’re regular kids,” she said. “The whole idea was to integrate them with everyone else.”

Some of the loudest cheers of the day were reserved for Sullivan, who backstroked most of his 50 free, but turned over and finished the last 10 meters with an improvised freestyle stroke before he touched the wall.

“It’s a lot fun, you get to meet lots of people this way,” said Sullivan, a fifth grader at Rogers Elementary School in Chula Vista.

But swimming takes a back seat to horseback riding as Sullivan’s favorite sport. He also shows rabbits and is an active Boy Scout.

“Swimming is just for fun,” he said.

When he first took to a pool three years ago, the same time Peetz and Rodriguez did, it wasn’t so enjoyable.

“They just dropped to the bottom,” Granquist said.

Saturday, their heads were held high.

It’s one of the sports Americans saw little of on the televised version of the Barcelona Olympics, but these Chula Vistans hope that will change by 1996, when the Summer Olympic visit Atlanta.

Hilltop High’s Andrew Garcia and Kelsie Flores of Castle Park High have played team handball the last three summers. They think the sport is great and that it’s getting a bad rap.

“They’re not showing it because the Americans didn’t qualify,” said Garcia, 14, who aspires to be Hilltop’s junior varsity quarterback this season and plays handball to keep in shape during the off-season.

“I think if they would publicize it, more people would like it,” said Flores.

What’s to like? They described handball as a combination of basketball, field hockey, soccer, baseball and water polo.

Flores, a junior, plays basketball and volleyball and throws the shot put for the Trojans. She said handball helps her jump better, strengthens her arm and keeps her a step ahead of the competition.

“It’s my favorite sport,” said Flores, who played on the losing all-star team in an exhibition game against a group of coaches. “I’m average in all the other things I do, so I put the averages together and do well in this.”

Both hope to find an organization that specializes in the sport and that the opening of the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista in the next year or so might make that a reality.

“There’s going to be a court at the training center, that should help,” Flores said.

Angel Jiminez and Sam Kelley accounted for 40 of their team’s 47 points as the Clippers defeated the Warriors, 47-15, in a boys’ 13-14 bronze medal basketball game.

Then they had to jet home to watch the Dream Team.

“They’re awesome,” said Jiminez, who won his third medal in as many years in the Eastlake games.

Both players described the games equally enthusiastically, but were disappointed on one count.

“It’s fun, you make new friends and the competition is great,” Kelley said.

“But it needs to be longer. It should go on all summer,” Jiminez said.

With 200 meters left in the boys’ 10-11-year-old 800 meters, Sean Ricketts began his surge.

Piece of cake. His time, 2 minutes 37.41 seconds, was one second off his personal best, but good enough for first place, which helped him take the age group victory in track and field.

Ricketts, whose track interest was sparked by his older brothers, also won the 100 meters (13.95 seconds) and the long jump (13 feet 9 inches) and finished fifth in the softball throw (93 feet).

Ricketts, a Hillcrest Elementary School fifth grader, said he might have bettered his 800 mark, but he wanted to do well in the long jump.

“I probably could have gone faster, but I was saving a little bit,” he said.

Ricketts’ small cheering section included brother Phil, who plans to run track at Chico State next year. But Phil’s letting his kid brother decide what events and sport--he plays soccer and baseball--Sean wants to pursue.

“I think he has a lot of talent,” Phil Ricketts said, “but I just let him do whatever he wants for fun. At a young age you don’t like to see them pressured. That way, he’ll stick with it.”

Such was the attitude of the entire event, which stressed participation over medal counts.