SWIMMING / U.S. CHAMPIONSHIPS AT MISSION VIEJO : Quance Strokes Way to 5.3-Second Victory

For Mike Barrowman, Angel Martino and Angie Wester-Krieg, the U.S. Swimming National Championships represent a post-Olympic victory tour. For Kristine Quance, it is her personal Olympics.

With perhaps the most to prove, Quance was the most dominant national champion Tuesday at Mission Viejo.

The 17-year-old from Northridge blitzed the field in the 200-meter breaststroke by 5.3 seconds, churning to the wall in a pool record 2 minutes 27.84 seconds. The only swimmers who have gone faster in the last 12 months are the three Barcelona medalists.

Stricken by mononucleosis, Quance did not race them in Spain because she finished third at the Olympic trials last March, one place shy of a berth on the U.S. team.

“This shows I’m the kind of person that won’t let something like that get me down,” Quance said, shortly after criticizing herself for not going even faster.

Unlike Quance, Olympic gold medalist Barrowman paid no mind to the clock.

Uncharacteristically, the man who has lowered the world record in the 200 breaststroke six times in the past three years, allowed himself to play with the field. Then, in the last 100 meters, he zoomed from third to the lead and a 2.9-second triumph.

As expected, his pool record time of 2:13.52 was much slower than his world-record setting swim of 2:10.16 in Barcelona.

Martino, an Olympic bronze medalist, was also on an emotional high--for different reasons--after winning the 100 freestyle in a pool record 56.06.

Since returning from Spain, she has been embraced by a public that scorned her after she was removed from the ’88 Olympic team for testing positive for steroids.

“People are telling me now they believed in me all along,” said Martino, who has maintained her innocence. “They never verbalized it before. It was nice to hear.”

After 18 years in the sport, Wester-Krieg, 27, won her first national title in the 200 butterfly. Her time was 2:11.92, 2.4 seconds ahead of the field.

Derek Weatherford, 20, of Swim Florida, broke Rick Carey’s 1985 pool record of 2:00.72 in the 200 backstroke with a 2:00.17.