Young, Old Rule Day at the Pool

The past, present and future of swimming was on display Sunday at the Speedo International Grand Challenge Swimming Invitational at the Heritage Park Aquatic Complex.

U.S. Olympian Amanda Beard of the Irvine Novaquatics seemed to glide to an easy victory in the 200-meter breaststroke, finishing in 2 minutes 34.07 seconds.

The surprise of the day was 11-year-old Kristen Caverly of the Novaquatics, who finished third in the championship final with a junior national qualifying time of 2:43.20.

“She’s very much like Amanda in that she’s very competitive and she’s not afraid to race,” Novaquatics Coach Dave Salo said. “She has good technique and if you look at her times now, she is actually further along than Amanda was at that age.”

Nicole Bowdle, 13, took fourth in the race.

Angie Wester-Krieg, who at 31 was the oldest participant in the meet, won the 100 freestyle (59.34) and the 200 butterfly (2:18.55) and finished with four gold medals for the three-day meet. She also took third in the 800 freestyle.

“Some of these kids are very young,” said Wester-Krieg, who earlier this year barely missed qualifying for the Olympic trials. “I’ve been doing this a long time, and sometimes the mental aspect of swimming can really get you down. Which is something I think the kids have going for them. They just get up on the blocks and swim. They don’t worry about the race as you tend to do when you get older.”

In the 800 freestyle, Victoria West of Redlands set a meet record, finishing in 9:05.31, more than a second faster than Alison Fealey’s 1995 record.

Jeff Julian of the Trojan Swim Club, won the 200 butterfly, setting a meet record in 2:05.37. Julian broke the 1995 record of 2:05.99 set by Santa Margarita High’s Philippe Demers. Former Laguna Hills High standout Mark Kwok, who was swimming with the Trojan Swim Club, finished fourth in the event in 2:09.73.

In the 100 freestyle, Polish Olympian Rafael Szukala, swimming for the Rose Bowl Swim Club, won in 52.58. Dave Huston, swimming unattached, won the 100 breaststroke in 2:24.35. Former Woodbridge star Sean Moore of the Novaquatics, took second (2:26.39).

In the 1,500 freestyle, Yan Gendlin of the Novaquatics finished fifth in 16:52.63.