Quance Moves a Big Step Closer to Fulfilling Olympic Dream : Swimming: Northridge teen-ager's effort in long course championships landed her on a national team this summer and should earn her a berth in the '92 Olympic Trials as well.

By THERESA MUNOZ

Aug. 5, 1990 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Until last week, Kristine Quance’s Olympic goal was a secret, something she pondered on long, silent swims to avoid being mesmerized by the black line on the bottom of the pool.

But Quance, 15, from Northridge, let the cat out of the bag last Sunday and Monday at the U. S. Swimming National Long Course Championships in Austin, Tex.

Although the qualifying times will not be released until the U.S. Swimming convention Sept. 16-23 in Pittsburgh, Quance’s efforts in the 400-meter individual medley (4 minutes 49.52 seconds) and the 200 breaststroke (2:33.52) are expected to be well under the qualifying standards for the Olympic Trials in March, 1992.

In addition, her third-place finishes in those races put her within striking distance of the first- or second-place performance she’ll need to make the U.S. team that will travel to Barcelona, Spain, to compete in the Games of the XXVth Olympiad.

“It’s kinda been in the back of my mind, but I’ve never told anyone,” Quance said of her Olympic aspirations. “I still don’t want to tell anyone. I don’t want to be bragging about the Olympics, but it’s a little more realistic now.”

Quance made it more realistic with a drastic improvement during the past 12 months. Her 400 IM time was seven seconds better than her previous best and a whopping 15 seconds faster than her best time of a year ago. In the 200 breaststroke, her clocking was three seconds faster than what she swam unshaved and unrested at the Olympic Sports Festival in Minneapolis last month, and seven seconds quicker than her 1989 best.

“At her first nationals last summer at USC we weren’t expecting her to make it and she had an awkward time,” said Steve Reardon, her coach with the Valley Aquatic Swim Team.

“In the second one in Nashville last March she did her best times in the morning (preliminaries) but she didn’t come back (well) at night (in the finals). It was a sign that she was too excited by her morning swims.

“But here, she had great races in the morning and she came back and made some adjustments and swam even better times at night. She feels like she belongs at this level now.”

Already Quance has earned a berth at yet another level. This weekend, she will make her international debut in the Legion of European Nations Cup in Rome.

“I’m pretty excited about going to Italy,” Quance said. “I’ve never been anywhere with U.S. Swimming except Canada and Minneapolis.

“I like traveling with swimming, I really don’t have a problem getting homesick. It’s really exciting, but it can get tiring because of the pressure.”

Not to mention the intimidation. Quance is still in awe of Olympian Janet Evans as well as Summer Sanders and Mary Ellen Blanchard, among others. But the difference between her first national championship meet last summer and her last is that now she can race with the best in the U.S. in the individual medley and the breaststroke.

“I kinda still do idolize them because they are so awesome, and when I first started going to nationals they were so much more awesome, “ Quance said. “But now I’m getting closer and closer. I didn’t really expect to place here and it still hasn’t sunk in.”

While Quance’s inexperience was painfully obvious in the 200 breaststroke, her talent was equally apparent. She reached the first wall ahead of the field, established a personal best at the 100 by turning in 1:13.00 and maintained the lead through 150 meters.

At that point, the more experienced Blanchard (granddaughter of Heisman trophy winner Doc Blanchard) and Jill Johnson passed her and Quance held on for third.

In the individual medley, she picked up time on all four strokes, but still suffers from a weak backstroke leg.

“Her backstroke is something we’ve worked on from Nashville (last March) until now,” Reardon said. “It has helped her cause. She still falls behind the leaders, but in Nashville, she fell behind the whole field.”

On her best leg, the breaststroke, Quance makes up for lost time, but that takes its toll on the final freestyle portion.

“It takes her 25 meters to recover because she goes so hard on the breaststroke,” Reardon said. “But all those things will work out. I guarantee her next nationals she’ll be more competitive on the backstroke and the freestyle.

“Now she has a taste of what it’s like to be in a race like that.”

According to Ed Spencer, coach of the Industry Hills Aquatic Club, it’s that ability to race that sets her apart.

“Sometimes athletes only do about two-thirds of what they need to do,” Spencer said. “Some of them work hard in the pool, but up on the blocks they are not at all cut out for the perfect race.

“Others are great racers, but they are not willing to pay the price in workouts. Kristine is going all out in workouts and weight training on her own, and when she gets up on the blocks, she’s all business.”

Though Quance, who began swimming at age 10, has reached the age when boy-watching and shopping with friends compete with the early hours, cold temperatures and monotony of her sensory-deprivation sport, Reardon believes she can withstand distractions.

For now.

“She hasn’t been swimming that long so everything is really fresh and new to her,” he said. “And she’s having too much fun doing what she’s doing, especially coming to a meet like this and getting third.

“After Nashville, she said she didn’t want fifth and sixth any more, and now she doesn’t want third. She’s constantly upgrading her goals.”

Even at the risk, it appears, of someone finding out.