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Back in style Torres, Keller set American records on first day
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Age and experience took a beating at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials Wednesday night. Klete Keller touched the wall an instant before Chad Carvin and broke a 12-year-old American record in the 400-meter freestyle to earn an Olympic berth on the opening night of the eight-day meet. Keller, an 18-year-old from Phoenix, won in 3 minutes, 47.18 seconds, breaking the mark of 3:48.06 set by Matt Cetlinski in the 1988 Olympic trials. Carvin, 26, also went under the old record time and finished in 3:47.50 to claim the other Olympic berth. Keller and Carvin were nearly stroke-for-stroke over the final 50 meters after Carvin had led from the start. "I'm not disappointed," Carvin said. "This meet is not about winning. It's about making the team and having a shot at Sydney. That's the ultimate goal." Kaitlin Sandeno, a 17-year-old who's dominated the 400 individual medley nationally for three years, is also headed for Sydney. "I'm going to be missing a month of high school," she said. "But I think it's a good excuse." Sandeno, of Lake Forest, Calif., led the entire way and won in 4:40.91 -- third-fastest in the world this year. "It's a huge honor. I'm going to go out there and kick some butt for the USA," Sandeno said, wiping away tears as the crowd at Indiana University Natatorium roared. She beat Maddy Crippen of Philadelphia by a body length. Crippen, 20, took the second Olympic spot in 4:42.81. Two 1996 Olympians were shut out. Cristina Teuscher, 22, finished third in 4:44.42, while Kristine Quance-Julian, a 25-year-old mother, was last in the eight-woman field in 4:51.98. "We have a good set of younger swimmers here," Sandeno said. "I don't think age has a lot to do with it. If you have it within you, you can go out there and win no matter how young you are." Carvin, of Laguna Hills, Calif., put his hard-luck past behind him in making his first Olympic team. He was diagnosed with a heart condition that caused him to miss the '96 trials. Two years later, a bulging disc in his back forced him out of the world championships. "Once I finished and looked up and saw I was second, I was filled with so much emotion," he said. "All I've gone through flashed before me. I wish I could share this feeling with everyone. It feels so good." Four years ago, Carvin tried to watch the trials on television from his parents' home in California, but gave up. "I broke down in tears," he said. "I couldn't even get through the first day." Carvin was on American-record pace as the fastest qualifier in the morning preliminaries. Keller will go up against world record-holder Ian Thorpe of Australia in Sydney. Even though both Keller and Carvin went under the American record, they're still nearly six seconds off Thorpe's record. "It's going to be fun. It's going to be a pretty big challenge, but I know everyone's beatable so I have a shot at him," Keller said. "We're the best America has to offer. We're going to go down there and give it what we've got. I think people will be surprised." Dara Torres, 33, created a sensation with an American record in the 100 butterfly preliminaries after ending her seven-year retirement last July. Torres was the fastest qualifier in 57.58, breaking Jenny Thompson's mark of 57.88, set last August. Thompson answered right back in the evening semifinals as the quickest qualifier for Thursday's final in 57.59. Torres, swimming in a different heat, was second in 58.07 and Ashley Tappin, a '92 Olympian, was third in 58.84. When Torres began her comeback last July, she trained with Thompson at Stanford. But by December, their coach, Richard Quick, split them up because the intensity of daily practice rivaled the Olympics. "Things can get intense when you've got two swimmers going after exactly the same thing, and there's only one thing out there -- the gold medal," Torres said. "But it's not like we're enemies. We're cordial to each other and we're teammates." Angel Martino, a gold medalist at the Atlanta Games, was sixth in the semifinals, but may scratch the final. Torres is trying to become the first American swimmer to make four Olympic teams. She competed in her first Olympics at Los Angeles in 1984, winning a gold medal in the 400 freestyle relay. She captured bronze and silver at the 1988 Games before seeming to finish her career with another gold in the 400 relay at Barcelona in '92. Next came a successful modeling and TV career, in which she did swimming commentary and made an infomercial for Tae Bo workout videotapes. After coming out of retirement in July 1999, she merely hoped to earn a spot on a relay. Now, she is a threat to make the Sydney Olympics in three sprint events as she is also planning to compete in the 100 and 50 freestyle. She's never won an individual Olympic gold medal. Thompson is pursuing the same goal; all five of her Olympic gold medals came in relays. She failed to make the '96 team in an individual event because of a surprisingly poor trials, where she was fourth in the 100 fly. In the semifinals of the men's 100 breaststroke, Ed Moses of Burke, Va., was the fastest qualifier in 1:00.99 for Thursday night's final. Moses, 20, also led after the morning prelims, when he was urged on by his mother's hand-lettered sign reading "Part the water Moses." Auburn teammates Pat Calhoun and David Denniston were 2-3 behind Moses in the semis.
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