SWIMMING / NADADORES MEET OF CHAMPIONS : More Than 500 to Compete at Annual Event

World record-holders Janet Evans and Jeff Rouse will among swimmers competing in the Mission Viejo Nadadores Swim Meet of Champions that begins today at Margarite Swim Center.

Nadadores Coach Bill Rose said this meet will mark the largest number of entrees (513) since the competition started 26 years ago.

“Although many of these athletes are in the middle of their training schedules, the meet will still give us good races and allows some of the younger swimmers to compete against top swimmers like Janet or Jeff,” Rose said. “I don’t know about records being broken, but any time you have this level of competition, you can definitely expect some fast times.”

Other top swimmers who will be competing are Chad Carvin, who holds the U.S. record in the 1,500-meter freestyle, recent Pan-American Games participant Alison Fealey, former Olympian Angie Wester-Kreig, Derya Buyukuncu, Gary Hall Jr., Lisa Jacob and Amanda Beard, a 13-year-old from Irvine who is becoming one of the United States’ top competitors in the breaststroke.

Also participating will be the Nadadores’ Bart Sikora, Bart Kizierowski and Peter Krzyskow and some of Southern California’s top high school swimmers, such as Philippe Demers of Santa Margarita, Mark Kwok of Laguna Hills and Giana Johnson, Carly Cox and Cathy Carone of Capistrano Valley.

Preliminaries start at 9 a.m. today and Saturday with finals scheduled for 5 p.m. On Sunday, preliminaries begin at 9 a.m. with finals at 4 p.m.