Vendt Overcomes Rival in 1,500

Three Olympians won events on the final night of the Phillips 66 U.S. National Swimming Championships, including USC freshman Erik Vendt, who captured the men’s 1,500-meter freestyle in 15 minutes 33 seconds.

Robert Margalis was three seconds back and Chris Thompson, who beat out Vendt for the bronze medal in Sydney, Australia was third.

“It’s not a bitter rivalry Chris and I have,” Vendt said, “but any time you’ve lost to a guy, you want to come back and beat him.”

Diana Munz, 18, of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, held on in the women’s 800-meter freestyle in 8:32.20, to edge 18-year-old Kaitlin Sandeno of Lake Forest. Sandeno had won a bronze medal in this event in Sydney but Munz beat her by a stroke. “I wanted to take the race out hard,” Munz said, “because I knew Kaitlin would come on strong.”

The top two finishers qualified for the 2001 FINA World Championships. Defending world and Olympic champion Brooke Bennett sat out the meet because of illness.

The other Olympian to win Sunday at the University of Texas Aquatic Center was Ian Crocker, 18, of Portland, Maine, who won the men’s 100-meter butterfly in 52.46.

With the retirements of Dara Torres and Amy Van Dyken, the women’s 50-meter race was wide open. Tammie Spatz-Stone won in a personal-best 25.11 seconds. Haley Cope, a California graduate, earned the other world championship spot by finishing second.