GIRLS’ SWIMMING AND DIVING 1995: PREVIEW : El Toro’s Lowes Has Burning Desire to Compete in Water

Burnout is one word that will make coaches fidget. In competitive swimming, burnout follows all swimmers like a poisonous snake, ready to strike at a moment’s notice.

Some athletes never recover and leave the sport. Others eventually fade into swimming limbo, always trying to regain their former times.

For Katie Lowes, perhaps the best 200-yard girl freestyler in the county, the serpent was poised to strike during her freshman year at El Toro High.

“I have been swimming since I was 5 years old,” Lowes said. “So in my freshman year, I decided to go out for volleyball. I wasn’t swimming during that time. So when I got back into the water after a two-month layoff, my times were really off and I started to get frustrated.”

Lowes, a 17-year-old junior, said she was swimming a lot of yards training at Saddleback Valley Aquatics and it was starting to take its toll on her outlook.

“After a while, it gets to you,” Lowes said. “Back and forth, six days a week . . . “

Because of the training, coupled with her disappointing times, Lowes started to feel the first pangs of burnout.

“After my freshman year, I joined the Irvine Novaquatics. It was Coach (Dave) Salo who helped me,” Lowes said. “He sat down with me and asked me what my goals were in swimming. He then told me I needed to start getting on track about my goals and training.”

Lowes said Salo forced her to set goals. He also kept reminding her that all of her goals were obtainable, but she needed to work for them.

After countless pep talks and training--which was different from her former club--she started to drop her times. As the times changed, so did her attitude.

“Katie is very focused on her goals and she realizes that she is capable of Olympic trial times, which has been her main goal,” said Salo, whose coaching method focuses more on high intensive short sets, rather than long yardage workouts. “She has come a long way since we first talked and has done everything we asked of her.”

Salo said Lowes is within a second of the Olympic time standard in the 100 and 200 freestyles, and is making progress in the 500-yard freestyle, recently swimming it in 4 minutes 59 seconds, her best in the event.

“Katie can taste winning and that makes her a tough competitor,” Salo said. “I think she will go a long way.”

Sheri Ross, girls’ swimming coach at El Toro, called Lowes “fiercely competitive,” and a swimmer who has become a major factor in the Chargers’ success in individual and relay events.

“You can’t ask for a better anchor on a relay team,” Ross said. “And she’s always ready to give 100% at all meets.”

Lowes swims the 100 freestyle in 51.02 and the 200, which is her best event, in 1:49.30. Her 50 free is nothing to dismiss, with a best of 24.30 that puts her among the top three in the county.

Besides her training regimen, which consist of a half-hour of land drills and exercises and about 1 1/2 hours of swimming six days a week, at Novaquatics, Lowes swims alongside Irvine High’s Wendy O’Brien, who is the county’s top 50- and 100-yard freestyle sprinter.

Lowes respects O’Brien, but neither girl enjoys losing to the other. At last year’s Foothill Swim Games, O’Brien out-touched Lowes in the 100 freestyle. “Yeah, I was kind of mad,” Lowes said. “But I love to compete, and I can’t stand to lose.”

“It was pretty intense around here,” Salo said. “I had to sit them (Lowes and O’Brien) down and talk to them. I told them it was OK to be competitors.”

Salo said he’s looking forward to the girls meeting in the section finals now that the Irvine girls’ team has moved up to Division I.

Lowes, who has a grade-point average of 4.2 and has attracted the attention of UCLA, California and South Carolina, has been in her share of high-pressure meets. Along with Southern Section finals, she has competed in Junior Nationals, Senior Nationals and invitationals which featured some of the best swimmers in the world. But she insists it’s the high school season that gets her pumped up.

“I have a lot of fun,” said Lowes, who said that after Senior Nationals are over later this month, she’ll resume training with her El Toro teammates. “I’m with my friends. And at league finals, and especially at (section finals), my adrenaline is really pumping. I’m really looking forward to the season.”

A far cry from a couple of years ago.

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Girls’ Swimming at a Glance

Top swimmers: Division I--Rachel Arrow, Newport Harbor, Sr.; Alison Brown, Esperanza, So.; Heather Brown, Esperanza, Jr.; Mary Ciecek, Mater Dei, So.; Kim Cobb, San Clemente, Sr.; Katie Cramm, Santa Margarita, So.; Marla Durham, Orange, Sr.; Katrina Florence, Trabuco Hills, Jr.; Ann Fredrickson, San Clemente, Sr.; Caroline Guidi, Esperanza, Fr.; Cindy Harrigan, Mater Dei, Sr.; Karen Hollinger, Villa Park, Sr.; Nikki Jordaan Woodbridge, Fr.; Caroline Kelley, Santa Margarita, Sr.; Alesa Kerr, Orange, So.; Jill Krill, Villa Park, Sr.; Susan Landau, Woodbridge, Sr.; Jaimee Lindstrom, Woodbridge, Sr.; Shannon Locks, Foothill, So.; Brooke Martin, Santa Margarita, Sr.; Teresa Mauck, San Clemente, Sr.; Sharon McCafferty, Trabuco Hills, Sr.; Jenny Milliken, Newport Harbor, Sr.; Stacy Olmstead, Orange, So.; Lauren Packard, Mater Dei, Jr.; Adrienne Paradeise, Los Alamitos, Sr.; Alyssa Roth, Orange, So.; Jamie Rubino, Los Alamitos, Jr.; Leigh Schubert, Los Alamitos, So.; Tatum Schubert, Los Alamitos, Sr.; Rachel Spencer, Woodbridge, Jr.; Shannon Strini, Orange, Sr.; Shannon Sweeney, Newport Harbor, Jr. Division II--Anna Armstrong, Sunny Hills, Jr.; Aileen Bennett, Estancia, Jr.; Mandi Dobbs, Sunny Hills, Jr.; Hiidi Fassnacht, Estancia, Sr.; Anna Fitzgerald, Laguna Hills, Sr.; Courtney Gulledge, El Dorado, So.; Grace Jo, El Dorado, Sr.; Nancy Jo, El Dorado, Jr.; Giana Johnson, Laguna Hills, Sr.; Hoa Nguyen, Estancia, Sr.; Mai Khanh Nguyen, Tustin, Sr.; Stacey Rosenberg, El Dorado, Jr.; Stacey Secord, El Dorado, So.; Mbgumi Takasaki, Sunny Hills, Sr.; Maria Uceda, Estancia, Sr.; Emily Van Eck, El Dorado, So.; Lisa Velez, San Clemente, Jr.

League favorites: Century: Villa Park; Empire: El Dorado; Freeway: Sunny Hills; Garden Grove: Rancho Alamitos; Golden West: Ocean View; Orange: Brea Olinda; Pacific Coast: Laguna Hills; Sea View: Irvine; South Coast: Mission Viejo; Sunset: Los Alamitos.

1995 Orange County coaches’ preseason poll: 1. El Toro; 2. Irvine; 3. Capistrano Valley; 4. Los Alamitos; 5. Marina; 6. San Clemente; 7. Mission Viejo; 8. Fountain Valley; 9. Santa Margarita; 10. (tie) El Dorado, Woodbridge.

Key dates: O.C. Swim Championships, March 25; Southern Section Relays, April 1; Troy Diving Invitational, April 17; Foothill Swim Games, April 22; Southern Section finals, May 12-13.

Notes: Now that Irvine has moved up to Division I, watch for a real race between the Vaqueros, Mission Viejo and El Toro. If everybody stays healthy, there could be a county sweep. Top complaint among coaches? An absence of quality freshmen; however, the same coaches praised next year’s freshmen.