They're They're (July 07, 2004)making waves

Stanford athletes have learned from first U.S. trials

by Keith Peters

It's a rollercoaster. A parachute jump. It's standing at the top of the mountain on two skis and realizing there's only one way down.

The U.S.Olympic Swimming Trials is all that and more. It's fun. It's scary. Some celebrate. Others cry. No emotional stone goes unturned as America's finest swimmers churn toward their goal of competing in the Summer Games.

Stanford women's swim coach Richard Quick has been an Olympic coach. He has guided the fortunes of many Olympic athletes, some of whom now own gold medals. He has seen the trials and tribulations of America's greatest swim meet.

"You've got to be real good on that day," Quick said. "There are going to be a lot of great swimmers not make the Olympic team."

Added recent Stanford graduate Tara Kirk, among the favorites in the 100- and 200-meter breaststrokes: "The trials are definitely a challenge because I'm a little bit of a newcomer, and I'll look at either side of me and there will be world champions, world recordholders and Olympic champions in the blocks. I almost feel like the Olympic trials are as tough as the Olympics."

Kirk, along with sister Dana, a junior at Stanford; plus Cardinal graduate Peter Marshall and senior Jayme Cramer, are among the new kids on the block. All got their feet wet at the 2000 Olympic trials, with none earning berths on the U.S. team that competed in the Sydney Games.

All are four years older. All have gained invaluable experience, through national and international competition. All are in position now to battle for Olympic berths when the U.S. trials begin Wednesday in Long Beach.

Only the top two finishers in each race will qualify for individual competition next month in Athens, Greece. Also up for grabs will six berths for each relay. Everyone else goes home and dreams for the next four years.

That's what the Kirk sisters, Marshall and Cramer have been doing since missing out in Indianapolis in 2000. All four, however, learned some very valuable lessons. Here are their stories:
DANA KIRK

"It was a really good learning experience for me," said the youngest Kirk. "I didn't go in with very high hopes. I knew where I was, compared to Jenny Thompson and Dara Torres." The two veterans, who trained at Stanford, both made the 2000 team in the 100 butterfly. Torres, in fact, set an American record of 57.58 in winning the finals.

"I walked into the Ready Room before semifinals with another 16-year-old and we're like the big fish where we come from," recalled Dana. "And I walked in between Jenny Thompson and Dara Torres and I looked like a midget."

The situation didn't get any better. Dana and her friend, Melissa, looked around for someplace to sit. Then the two see Ashley Tappin.

"She's really pretty but she's so intense," Dana said. "She's got these dark eyes, just staring out at you, and she's just sitting there with her leg like this over two chairs. So she was taking up three chairs, and myself and Melissa Green were the youngest two in there, and so we looked at her and everyone else, and we sat on the floor.

"And Dara Torres came up to us, and was looking at us, and goes 'How old are you?' And I'm like, 'Oh my God. (It's) Dara Torres.' Melissa kind of mumbles out like 16, really quietly and Dara goes, 'I'm old enough to be your mother!' and then walked away.

"And we're like, 'Oh, we're done.' And, lo and behold, (we finish) 15th and 16th in the semifinals."

Dana Kirk, however, learned well from that experience.

"She (Torres) couldn't do that to me now," Dana said. "If someone came up to me and said 'I'm old enough to be your mother' I'd be like, 'Well, you're pretty damn old then!'"

Kirk heads into the U.S. Trials seeded No. 9 in the 100 fly (59.80) and No. 2 in the 200 fly (2:08.40). Her 200 time ranks her No. 4 all-time in U.S. history and No. 1 in the U.S. this season.
TARA KIRK

"My Trials was more disappointing because I was expected to do a lot better than I did, in the 100 (breaststroke)," she said. "I had a great 200. I dropped a lot of time. I finaled in the 200 and I didn't final in the 100 and, at that point in my career I was not even remotely a 200 swimmer.

"But, I just swam really bad in my 100. I made it back to semis and I was ninth (only the top eight advanced to finals). I was really disappointed. I swam faster than that twice in the middle of the year without tapering or shaving. So, I don't really know what it was, but I sucked."

After her disappointment in the 100 breast, where she was favored to reach the finals, Kirk took a day off and ran around Indianapolis.

"We played miniature golf and went to batting cages, and I was so sore the next day," Tara recalled. "Two boys on our team snuck us out so we could go play, and our coach didn't know about it!

"So, I was so sore the next day, but I think that was good. I was like, whatever, and I made finals (in the 200). I finished eighth. I actually heard the crowd cheer, because Kristy Kowal set an American record and I was like, 'Wow, I still have 10 seconds to go. I'm 10 meters from the wall. What is this?'

"I think it was a good learning experience, too. I've had plenty of meets and stuff since then to compete against fast people . . . expectations have changed. You have to expect to swim well. There's a little more pressure, but there's pressure on everyone at Trials."

Tara Kirk capped a sensational college career at Stanford by winning the Honda-Broderick Cup, presented to the NCAA Female Athlete of the Year. She went 35-0 in 100 breast races in her career and set American records in both the 100- and 200-yard breaststrokes.

She's the No. 3 seed in the 100 breast (1:08.12) behind Amanda Beard (1:07.42) and Megan Quann (1:08.09), who set the current American record of 1:07.05 at the Sydney Olympics. In the 200, Kirk is seeded No. 3 (2:26.36) behind Beard, the American recordholder at 2:22.99, and Kowal (2:25.84).

PETER MARSHALL

"It wasn't really a big deal," Marshall said of his first Trials experience. "My coach just wanted me to go. We knew I wasn't going to make the team. He just wanted me to get a feel for the atmosphere at Trials. It's a little more tense than any other meet that you've ever been at, even if you're not a favorite or even in the running because only two people make it."

Marshall competed in the 100-meter backstroke in the 2000 trials.

"I had sprained my ankle in 2000, so I get to the pool my first day and I'm warming up. I slip on the deck and tweak my ankle again, before my race.

"I didn't have tons of expectations of expectations. I would have been happy if I had gotten back for semis, because then you're on TV. That was the coolest thing I could come up with in 2000."

Marshall swam against Texas star Neil Walker in the opening round.

"I can remember finishing my race. I knew I didn't do all that great, but I just wanted to know how far ahead of me he was after 15 meters," Marshall said. "I thought about that a little bit and it was a factor then because I'd never really been at that level; never really competed at that level before."

For Marshall, getting his feet wet then, no matter that the results were, proved to be beneficial.

"I think it was a good idea," Marshall said. "I'm glad I qualified for that because then I got a feel for it. I know a little bit more of what to expect this year, even though it won't be the same, it's something like 'Well, I've been here before.'

"I was surprisingly a little bit nervous in 2000, even though I wasn't going to make the team. I guess we got up there and we had nothing to do for 4-5 days before the meet starts, and all we do is sleep. We just take naps in the middle of the day, then we try to go to sleep at night and all I can think about is swimming."

Marshall capped his Stanford career with a third straight NCAA title in the 100 back - a world record of 50.32 for short-course meters. He goes into the Trials seeded No. 4 in the 100 back (54.91), trailing Aaron Peirsol (53.61), defending Olympic champion and world recordholder Lenny Krayzelburg (54.00) and former Stanford teammate Randall Bal. In the 200 back, Marshall is seeded No. 5 (2:00.64).
JAYME CRAMER

"I went in there expecting to make the finals in the 200 butterfly," said Cramer, who had just finished his junior year of high school in 2000. "My first two races I put a lot of pressure on myself, even though I shouldn't have. I kind of went in figuring I should be top eight and it didn't work out.

"My first two races were pretty poor and I wasn't happy with myself, but I had a great 100 fly race - making semifinals - so I got to learn what it's like to swim at night, have another swim at this meet and how big it is. With all the crowd there, it's different than any other meet I've been to.

"I was in the first semifinal heat (in the 100 fly) and so was one of my current teammates, Matt McDonald, and he tells the story as he came up to me in the Ready Room, and goes, 'Hey, what's going on?' I was so nervous, I didn't say a word to him. And he got upset. And that was the first thing he said to me when we came to school, 'You know, a year and a half ago at the Olympic Trials, you didn't say a word to me. Did you think you were better than me?'

"And I'm like, 'Nah, man, I was just really nervous.' He likes to tell that story, that I was too cool for him. I tell it a little differently, that I was clowning around with the other guys in the Ready Room and didn't really know he was trying to talk with us."

Cramer and McDonald are good friends today and both seniors-to-be are back at the Trials for another shot at the Olympics. Cramer is entered in five events - 100 free, 200 free, 400 free, 100 fly and 200 fly - but may drop one or two depending on how things go.

His best chance at making the team is in the 200 free, where he's ranked ninth (1:49.37) but six are chosen to help fill out the 800 free relay squad. He's also seeded as high as sixth in the 200 fly (1:59.10), a race where world recordholder Michael Phelps is heavily favored.

Cramer, like everyone else, has dreamed about this moment.

"I've definitely thought about it and mentally rehearsed it before," he said.

And how does it turn out?

"I make the Olympic team," he said. "If you think otherwise, it's not going to happen. You can't get on the Olympic team unless you know you're going to be. You've got to go in confident."

Confidence. That's what Dana and Tara Kirk have now. And Peter Marshall and Jayme Cramer now possess. They have drawn upon their experiences of four years ago and are now in position to realize their greatest dream - to become Olympians.

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