Top Area Athletes Are Set to Battle at National Meet

Top swimmers from Orange County and the nation gather in Nashville, Tenn., today through Aug. 1 for the Phillips 66 National Swimming Championships, which will determine the U.S. team for the upcoming World Championships, Pan-American Games and University Games.

Amy Van Dyken and Tom Dolan, both Olympic gold medalists, head an elite field that includes Brooke Bennett, Gary Hall Jr., Brad Bridgewater and Beth Botsford.

Olympic medal winner Amanda Beard, Chad Carvin and Steve West lead the county contingent.

Carvin, a former Laguna Hills High standout who trains with Hillenbrand Aquatics in Arizona, was a favorite to make the 1996 Olympic team but had to bow out because of an illness. He has come back to swim competitively this past year and is one of the nation’s top distance swimmers.

West, Beard’s teammate on the Irvine Novaquatics, just missed making the 1996 Olympics. He competed for the U.S. national team in the Short Course World Championships earlier this year. West is world-ranked in the 100 and 200 breaststroke.

Jason Lezak, a former Irvine High standout who swims for UC Santa Barbara, also will compete in Nashville. He was 1997 swimmer of the year in the Big West Conference. His specialty strokes are the 50 and 100 freestyles.

Jessamyn Miller, a senior-to-be at Mater Dei, won the 100 breaststroke at the Swim Meet of Champions last month, might surprise some. Miller, who trains with the Los Caballeros Swim Club in Fountain Valley, is a strong contender in the 100 and 200 breaststroke.

Philippe Demers, who graduated in June from Santa Margarita High, was The Times Orange County male swimmer of the year. He is one of the nation’s top swimmers in the butterfly. Demers will compete for USC this fall.

Van Dyken won four gold medals in Atlanta, the most ever by an American woman at one Olympic Games. She only recently resumed serious training, and went 25.61 seconds in the 50-meter freestyle last month at a meet in Santa Clara.

Other Southern Californians entered include Jennifer Parmenter of Granada Hills, Kristine Quance of Northridge, Lenny Krayzelburg of USC, Lindsay Benko of USC, and 12-year-old Carly Geehr of Pasadena, who has been breaking Beard’s age-group breaststroke records.