SWIMMING : Olympians Highlight 24th Meet of Champions

Olympic gold medalists and world record-holders Janet Evans, Pablo Morales and Jeff Rouse headline the 24th Swim Meet of Champions, today through Sunday at the Mission Viejo International Swimming complex.

More than 450 swimmers from 72 teams, including four Canadian teams, are entered in the meet, which starts tonight at 5 with finals in the 800-meter freestyle.

Evans, a gold medalist in the 800 freestyle in the 1988 and ’92 Olympic Games and the world record-holder at 8 minutes 16.22 seconds, has been training at USC. Her entry time for the Meet of Champions is 8:34.99. Jane Skillman is seeded second.

Lars Jorgensen of San Diego is top seeded in the men’s 800 with a time of 8 minutes flat. Chad Carvin of Laguna Hills, the 1993 U.S. Swimming spring national champion, is seeded second.

Preliminaries begin at 9 a.m. Friday through Sunday. Finals start at 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday and at 4 p.m. Sunday.

Stanford graduate Morales, the surprising ’92 Olympic gold medalist in the 100 butterfly, is expected to be challenged by NCAA 100 butterfly champion Seth Pepper and U.S. Swimming spring nationals titlist Brian Alderman.

Rouse, the world record-holder in the 100 backstroke, could be pushed by Derya Buyukuncu of Irvine Novaquatics or Bart Sikora of the Mission Viejo Nadadores.