SWIMMING: NATIONAL SPRING CHAMPIONSHIP:
Wilkens Didn't Expect This Much Success

The New York Times via Dow Jones

Publication Date: Wednesday March 31, 1999
Sports Desk; Section D; Page 6, Column 4
c. 1999 New York Times Company
By FRANK LITSKY

When Tom Wilkens was growing up in Middletown, N.J., and swimming for Christian Brothers Academy in nearby Lincroft, he never thought he would be ranked No. 1 in the world in a race that was not even his specialty.
He never expected to win three national titles in 1996, one in 1997 and two in 1998. He never anticipated he would win two titles on the first two full nights of the Phillips 66 national spring championships being contested this week at the Nassau County Aquatic Center in Eisenhower Park on Long Island.
But here he is, 23 years old, a Stanford graduate, academic all-American and a swimmer on target for next year's Sydney Olympics. On Monday night, he won the men's 200-meter breast-stroke. Last night, he won the 400-meter individual medley in a rout, 7 meters ahead of the runner-up, Erik Vendt, in 4 minutes 17.12 seconds. Only 11 others, three of them Americans, have ever swum faster. Wilkens plans to swim the 100-meter breast-stroke tonight and the 200-meter individual medley tomorrow.

In the world rankings, based on 1998 times, he is first in the 200-meter breast-stroke, sixth in the 400-meter individual medley and seventh in the 200-meter individual medley. He wonders about the logic of that because he considers the individual medley, which combines all four strokes, his best event and does not even train for the breast-stroke.

Being ranked No. 1 in the world is very strange, he said. I've never thought of myself as one of the best in the world. I'm just a swimmer who competes.
He is also a swimmer who knows the difference between dreams and goals. When I was growing up, he said, the Olympics were always a dream, and you don't know if you can attain dreams.

He added: I went to the 1998 world championships after barely making the United States team and ended up seventh in the 200 breast-stroke. I was third with 50 meters to go and I faded, and I remember thinking I didn't swim that well and was still right next to the best swimmers in the world. It hit me then that this is something I could do and be successful at it.

His success, he said, comes from a God-given talent and my work ethic. Since December, Wilkens has been coached by Dick Jochums at the celebrated Santa Clara Swim Club in California. Jochums believes in heavy-volume training.
He makes it easy to coach him, Jochums said, because he busts his tail every day and never takes a day off. He still needs technique work, and sometimes he'll try to go too hard instead of thinking and reacting. Swimming is a thinking man's sport, and the biggest thing is that we've got him in control of whatever car he's driving.

Wilkens was not the only winner last night. The tightest race in the 50-meter pool was the men's 200-meter freestyle, in which Josh Davis held off Ugur Taner, 1:49.45 to 1:49.48. They finished 2 inches apart.

The women's winners were Lindsay Benko in the 200-meter freestyle (1:59.72) and Kaitlin Sandeno in the 400-meter individual medley (4:43.37). Only seven American women have swum the individual medley faster than Sandeno, who turned 16 two weeks ago. FRANK LITSKY