Sandeno Takes Step Up in Class--All the Way to Sydney

Attention attendance takers at El Toro High School.

Kaitlin Sandeno will be late for her senior year.

By a month.

Sandeno, a 17-year-old from Lake Forest who will be vice president of her senior class, became the first 2000 U.S. Olympic swimmer Wednesday night when she won the women’s 400-meter individual medley in a career-best time of 4 minutes 40.91 seconds, third-fastest in the world this year.

In her first race of her first Olympic trials, Sandeno was nearly two seconds better than runner-up Maddy Crippen, a 20-year-old from Philadelphia.

Nearly an hour after her race, when Sandeno was still trying to find her mom, Jill, and her dad, Tom, she could still hardly speak. Only tears would come.

Swimming for Nellie Gail Gators Aquatics, Sandeno led her race from start to finish, from her first stroke in the butterfly to her final one in the freestyle.

Sandeno’s coaches, Vic and Renee Riggs, spoke with pride. “When I first saw her as a 7-year-old little girl in 1992 until now, Kaitlin has made steady progress every year,” Renee Riggs said. “She didn’t become dominant until about a year ago, but I think we’re all still in a little bit of shock. It’s incredibly emotional for all of us.”

When Sandeno, who is entered in seven other races this week, looked up at the scoreboard and saw her time, she put her hands to her head and then put her head under the water.

Sandeno has been doing an online diary for U.S. Swimming this year and on the web page is a picture of Sandeno in her royal blue prom dress, the one with the little spaghetti straps that showed off her tanned shoulders.

Since this picture was posted, Sandeno said, she has received lots of e-mails. “From guys,” she said. “They wrote stuff like, ‘Oooh, you’re hot.” Then Sandeno blushed. She is not used to being hot. Only fast.

If her coaches had to pick, they say Sandeno’s best event might be the 200 butterfly, which will begin Saturday. Sandeno has cut her time from 2:20 to 2:18 and all the way to 2:10.80 in less than a year. And she’s recorded those times, Renee Riggs said, when she wasn’t tapered and in top racing shape.

A year ago Sandeno never expected this. She was excited to be on the yearbook staff at El Toro and thinking it might be fun to run for class office. She was not “hot.” She was not an Olympian. And she wasn’t going to be late for her senior year.

“But I don’t think anyone will mind,” Sandeno said. “I think I’ll have a good excuse. I’ll be in Sydney.”

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Two Novaquatics swimmers, Daniel Kim and Bobby Middleton, and Huntington Beach’s Steve West, who swims for Team TYR, made it into the semifinals of the men’s 100-meter breaststroke but none could make it into the finals. For the first time at the Olympic trials, in all the races of 200 meters or less, there are preliminaries, semifinals and then the eight-person final instead of just prelims and finals. Kim finished 10th, West 13th and Middleton 14th.

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In the men’s 400 freestyle, where Laguna Hills’ Chad Carvin finished second and earned an Olympic spot, Carvin’s Mission Viejo Nadadores teammates were less successful. Carl Larsen finished 15th, Matt Martin finished 20th, James Davison 31st and Steve McLeod 51st.

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In the women’s 400 IM, 15-year-old Kristen Caverly of San Clemente and the Aquazots, the new team that trains at UC Irvine, finished 14th and teammate Nicole Mackey was 18th.

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Janella Bart was left off a list published Wednesday of Orange County swimmers competing at the trials. Bart, 21, a Huntington Beach High graduate who swims for Washington, will compete in the 800 freestyle.