SWIMMING / U.S. NATIONALS AT MISSION VIEJO : Quance Joins Elite Group of Champions

With her victory in the 200-meter individual medley Friday at Mission Viejo, Kristine Quance joined Mark Spitz, Tracy Caulkins, Shirley Babashoff and Janet Evans as the only people to win four individual events at the U.S. Swimming Long Course Championships.

“It’s great and all, but it seems to to take away from it that (Barcelona Olympians) Summer Sanders and Anita Nall are not here,” Quance said. “But still, I’m happy with my times.”

Quance, 17, of Northridge also won the 100 and 200 breaststrokes and the 400 individual medley. Her 4-minute 43.32-second time in the 400 individual medley earned her the Phillips Performance Award by a vote of the media.

The Ft. Lauderdale (Fla.) Swim Team won the final event, the men’s 400 medley relay, boosting their points total to 393.5, two more than Santa Clara Swim Club, in combined team competition.

Other winners on the last day of competition:

--Ron Karnaugh of the host Mission Viejo Nadadores took the lead in the men’s 200 individual medley on the backstroke-to-breaststroke turn and dominated the race, touching in a pool-record 2:01.41, 1.5 seconds faster than Pablo Morales’ 1985 mark.

--With Olympic medalists Matt Biondi and Tom Jager absent, Todd Pace won his first national title in the 50 freestyle in 22.84 seconds, 0.13 ahead of Steve Crocker.

--Angel Martino, the Olympic bronze medalist in the 50 freestyle, won her specialty in 25.84 seconds, 0.60 slower than her Barcelona swim. “The Games took a lot out of me emotionally,” said Martino, 25, of the Americus (Ga.) Blue Tides.

--Alexis Larsen, Quance’s CLASS Aquatics teammate, won the 1,500 freestyle in 16:36.92, the third-fastest time by an American this year. It was the first national title for Larsen, 15, of Pacific Palisades.

--Despite developing a side stitch at 800 meters, Carlton Bruner of Florida Aquatics claimed the 1,500 freestyle in 15:20.21, eclipsing Mike O’Brien’s 1985 mark of 15:23.34.

Swimming Notes

The 400 freestyle champion, Peter Wright, 19, of Jersey Wahoos was the men’s high-point winner. . . . Chris Eckerman, 17, of Des Moines (Iowa) Swim Federation and Jamie Johnson, 15, of Florida Aquatics earned rookie of the meet honors. . . . Santa Clara won the men’s title and Florida Aquatics, with only four swimmers (two of them 15-year-olds), won the women’s championship.