SWIMMING / JUNIOR NATIONALS WEST : Phoenix’s Hall Sets Record in Boys’ 100 Freestyle Race

Gary Hall Jr. rarely has embraced swimming, despite his father’s status as a two-time Olympic swimming medalist and the flag-bearer for the United States at the 1976 Olympic Games.

Basketball was the younger Hall’s sport as a youth and although he gave swimming a try three years ago, he wasn’t “into it,”so he gave it up last December.

But with encouragement from his father, Hall returned to the pool in May, and by July he had qualified for the Junior Nationals West meet for the first time.

Although many swimmers compete in three or four junior national meets before they make the consolation or championship final, Hall, 17, of Phoenix proved Saturday to be an exception.

At the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center, Hall not only won the Junior Nationals West title in the 100-meter freestyle, he set a junior nationals record with a time of 50.91 seconds in the preliminaries.

In the final, Hall was slightly slower at 51.09 but .70 ahead of runner-up Scott Jones of Space City, Texas Aquatics.

Hall, whose previous best was 53.09, was at a loss for an explanation, if not future for motivation.

“This meet gives me a lot to look forward to,” he said. “This gave me a taste of what is to come.”

Two other junior national records were set: Cathy O’Neill, 15, of the City of Plano (Tex.) Swimmers posted a 2:35.54 in the girls’ 200 breaststroke, eclipsing Amy Durfee’s 1991 mark of 2:36.22.

The boys’ 200 breaststroke record also went by the boards. Christian Claytor of the Walnut Creek (Calif.) Aquabears shaved his head and then shaved 0.29 off the mark set in the preliminaries by Dennis Wilkinson.

John Simmons of Irvine Novaquatics and Flaco Fleischmann of The Woodlands, Tex., also came from behind to set records.

Simmons trailed Whitney Woolard of Vancouver, Ore., by .90 with 50 meters to go in the boys’ 200 backstroke, then surged ahead to finish in a Junior National West record of 2:06.49.

Fleischmann timed 2:03.01 in the boys’ 200 butterfly, .50 faster than the National Juniors West record set in 1989 by Can Ergenekan.