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Hall captures national title in freestyle

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Posted: Wednesday August 11, 1999 11:57 AM

Gary Hall Jr. swam the 50 freestyle in 22.13 seconds after being bedridden with the flu last week. Simon Bruty/Allsport

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Five days ago, Gary Hall Jr. was unable to leave his bed.

On Tuesday at the National Swimming Championships, he swam his fastest time ever in the 50-meter freestyle.

Hall, 24, missed much of the last year due to a suspension for taking a recreational substance and a recent diabetes diagnosis. Last Thursday, he was in bed with the flu. But he swam the 50 freestyle in 22.13 seconds Tuesday night at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center to earn his fourth national title.

"To rest up, I locked myself in my hotel room and didn't leave," the Phoenix native said. "I was really nervous [Tuesday]; it was like a new sensation."

After a year away from competition herself, Amy Van Dyken resumed her career Tuesday by winning the women's 50 freestyle on the final day of the meet. Van Dyken, 26, who finished the sprint in 25.13 seconds, hadn't competed in a national meet since the spring of 1998 due to shoulder surgery.

"It was a blast to be back," Van Dyken said. "I've been out of the sport for so long that I don't know half the people competing."

Van Dyken will resume her training regimen and continue rehabilitating her shoulder in lieu of swimming in the Pan Pacific Games later this month. "My goal is not to be a Pan-Pac champ -- it's to be another sort of champion," she said, not-so-subtly expressing her desire for Olympic gold in 2000.

Other titlists included Brooke Bennett, who swam the women's 1,500-meter freestyle in 16 minutes, 14.77 seconds. Kristine Quance-Julian (2:16.06) earned her 10th national championship in the women's 200-meter individual medley, while Tom Wilkens earned the men's 200 IM title with a time of 2:02.03.

Chad Carvin, the winner of the men's Kiphuth Award for the highest individual point total, won his 15th national crown in the men's 1,500-meter freestyle.

Quance-Julian, 24, the recipient of the same award on the women's side, accepted her 200 IM medal while holding her 8-month-old baby.

"I can't ever remember wanting a race so bad," she said. "The season has been a little different for me, but I'm trying to get back in shape."

 

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