Lezak Enjoys Ride to World Championships

Jason Lezak doesn’t know why he is still getting faster at age 25. He doesn’t know why, while his 17-year-old Irvine Novaquatics teammate Aaron Peirsol has already been an Olympian, he, Lezak, is finally making his first U.S. world championship team.

All Lezak knows is that he is having the time of his life.

Saturday night at the U.S. National Swimming Championships, Lezak finished second in the 50-meter freestyle. Earlier in the week Lezak, who went to Irvine High and UC Santa Barbara, won the 100 free. For the sprint specialist, these are his first-ever individual-event berths on a major U.S. team.

At the 2000 Olympics, Lezak earned a gold medal for swimming prelims on the 400-meter medley relay team and a silver medal as part of the American record-breaking 400-meter freestyle relay team.

“I had a blast, too,” Lezak said. “It wasn’t a disappointment not making an individual event because being part of the relays, I can’t tell you how much fun that was.”

Lezak said all he can figure is that he is a late bloomer. “I just barely qualified for junior nationals when I was a junior in high school,” Lezak said. “By that time all the good [swimming] colleges had given out all their scholarships.”

At UC Santa Barbara Lezak made the NCAA championships only once, as a junior. “But somehow my stroke keeps improving and so do my times,” he said.

Because he started swimming as a 5-year-old, Lezak has had a 20-year career already. He was a high school All-American water polo player and now he’d like to add a world championship swimming medal to his resume. Whether Lezak will make it to the 2004 Olympics, “I don’t know,” he said. “At this point I’m taking it a year at a time. But if I keep on getting better, why not?”

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Kristen Caverly, a 16-year-old junior at San Clemente High, and Erin Sieper, a 16-year-old junior at Esperanza, didn’t make the world team but were happy they made the finals of the 200 breaststroke.

In a tough field that included three former Olympians--Amanda Beard, Kristy Kowal and Megan Quann--Caverly, representing the Irvine Aquazots, finished fifth and Sieper, swimming for Swim Team of Placentia, finished seventh.

It was Sieper’s first time swimming in a senior national finals and both teenagers are eager to get back home and continue training.

“I’ve already heard from my coach what I need to work on,” Caverly said.