Diehl Won’t Blame Poor Performance on Illness

INDIANAPOLIS — It was another disappointing day for Mission Viejo’s Eric Diehl, who tried to keep a stiff upper lip while explaining the frustration of contracting Epstein-Barre syndrome seven months before these U.S. Olympic trials.

Diehl, who was ranked seventh among Americans in the 400 freestyle in 1991, placed 21st in 4:00.40, a whopping 4.62 seconds slower than the career-best he posted at spring nationals last year.

“Nothing was there,” Diehl said. “I didn’t have any rhythm and nothing was good.”

Diehl refused to blame his lack of speed on Epstein-Barre, a condition that causes fatigue.

“The way I look at it, I’m sure it didn’t help, but I can’t blame my not swimming fast on it,” Diehl said. “I don’t know what to blame not swimming fast on.”

Diehl, 18, passed up his freshman year at Stanford to stay with the Nadadores and prepare for the trials.

“I am disappointed for the young man,” Mission Viejo Coach Terry Stoddard said. “He comes to practice and works hard every day.”

Diehl’s condition was diagnosed in early August, after he left for the Pan American Games in Havana, Cuba.

Gaby Diehl, Eric’s mother, decided not to tell him about his illness until after he finished competing.

Diehl proceeded to win a gold medal in the 200 freestyle and a bronze in the 400 freestyle, which made Stoddard think that he could swim well here despite his condition.

The knowledge of it weighed on Diehl’s mind, however.

“The toughest mountain to climb in training is not the sets, the speed or the endurance,” Stoddard said. “It’s dealing with what might be a little handicap. The doctor told me it would be hard to come to grips with this. I didn’t understand what he meant then, but now I do. It takes time.”

In other action Wednesday, four area swimmers competed in the 100 breaststroke and two of them, Ron Karnaugh and Steve West, placed in the championship finals.

Karnaugh, 25, of Mission Viejo, was fifth in 2:17.94, and West, 19, of Golden West Swim Club and the University of Michigan, placed seventh in 2:18.60.

West qualified fifth after posting a career-best 2:17.33 in the preliminaries. Karnaugh qualified sixth in a career-best 2:17.61.

Karnaugh’s swim bodes well for Friday’s 200 individual medley, the event in which he has a realistic chance of making the U.S. Olympic team.

“The greatest thing about Karnaugh’s 200 breaststroke is that he is 25 years old and he is still improving,” Stoddard said. “I feel a strong breaststroke will help him in the 200 individual medley and so does he.”

Karnaugh swam the race, an odd event for him, so that he could get a race under his belt while waiting to swim his specialty on the final day of the six-day meet.

Brian Pajer of Irvine Novaquatics and Brian Henricks of the Nadadores also competed in the 200 breaststroke.

Pajer, who suffers from asthma, had difficulty breathing in the early stages of the race and finished 12th in 2:18.95, his best time since 1990.

“He was tilting his head a little bit to get deeper breaths,” Novaquatics Coach Dave Salo said. “And that threw his stroke off a little bit. Against a world-class field like this you can’t get too far out of a race like that and come back (in the last 100).”

Henricks, 18, placed fifth in the consolation race in 2:21.24. He posted a much quicker time (2:20.68) in his preliminary swim, but it placed him 22nd.

“He went out after it,” Stoddard said of a halfway time of 1:06.20, which was only .7 off his best 100 time. “He had a little trouble finishing. He lost his stroke and that’s tough with breaststroke being a skill stroke.”

In the consolation finals of the 400 freestyle, Ryan Cox of the Nadadores and the University of California, finished sixth in 3:58.96. Cox, 18, clocked a 3:58.56 in his preliminary swim.

“He is up and coming,” Stoddard said. “He’s been a good miler (1,500 freestyle) and I see his 400 coming along as a strong event for him.”