Kylander Flowers at CSUN After High School Burnout

AMHERST, N.Y. —  Jude Kylander can safely lay claim to the title of fastest woman swimmer at the NCAA Division II championship meet.

She already has anchored three victorious relay teams and won an individual title in the 50-yard freestyle sprint.

And her favorite race, the 100-yard freestyle, is scheduled for today.

But as fast as she is in the water, she was even more of a blur on foot one October day in 1987.

You think FloJo can fly? Too bad there wasn’t a stopwatch on Kylander, a born and bred Pennsylvanian, the first time the light fixtures in her off-campus apartment started break-dancing to the tune of a California quake.

Fortunately, Kylander’s older brother Fred was on a visit and was there to place the event in its proper perspective.

“I got to meet the neighbors,” he said.

They both did. Jude said that it was quite a while before they dared go back inside.

“We were looking for an open field to go run in,” she said. “Anything away from buildings.”

Kylander said that she was more frightened than her brother but “only because I could tell he was scared. Normally, nothing bothers him, so I figured if he was scared I should be even more.”

The following day, Northridge Coach Pete Accardy recalls, Kylander was still quaking even though the ground had long since stopped.

“It made me think about coming back home, let me tell ya,” Kylander said.

Home for the Kylanders is Warren, Pa., an oil and timber town of about 15,000 less than 20 miles from the New York border. The area is not considered much of a swimming hotbed, which is why Jude, the youngest of four children, was sent packing as a high school junior in search of better training.

Mercersburg Academy, a private boarding school in the mountainous southeastern part of the state, seemed to have the prescribed combination of aquatics and academics.

It was the right choice for many--Olympic backstroke specialist Betsey Mitchell went there, as did several other successful Division I swimmers. But it wasn’t right for Kylander, who fizzled when faced with the demands of mega-mileage workouts.

“I got worse each year,” Kylander said. “By the time I graduated, I wasn’t even a contender to look at.”

So, while her high school teammates sorted scholarship offers from the likes of Tennessee and Texas, Kylander took to the road in search of a team.

First stop: Orlando, Fla., site of the 1985 Division II nationals.

“I knew when I graduated that if I was going to continue swimming I had to be realistic,” Kylander said. “I didn’t want to just go try to hang on at some Division I school.”

Fred Kylander, who had been a swimmer on strong Clarion State (Pa.) College teams, suggested Northridge.

“They were always an all-around class act,” said Fred, who last swam for Clarion in 1982, a year in which CSUN won both the men’s and women’s national team championships.

Clarion, Fred said, was not much of an option. In his two seasons of swimming there he suffered through the same type of burnout his sister had experienced in high school.

“I improved, but not in the leaps and bounds like kids who had been slower before they went to Northridge,” Fred said. “When I swam against them I couldn’t understand what kind of magic Accardy had. But I thought that is what Jude should have.”

No tricks involved, Accardy says. A shot of confidence was all that was needed.

“She came from a good swimming school, but I don’t think they worked with her head very much,” Accardy said. “A lot of swimming coaches put so much stress on these kids from such a young age that they all go through plateaus.

“We’ve picked up a lot of burned-out people and been able to work with them. All it is really is developing them emotionally rather than swim-wise.”

Although they are 3,000 miles apart, Kylander keeps close contact with her family.

Fred Kylander said that the family considers his sister’s experience living in Southern California as valuable as the education she is receiving.

“We come from a very small and conservative community,” Fred said. “You only get so much from the books, then maybe 75% is out of life itself. There is no better place than Southern California to learn those lessons.”

There is no debating that Kylander’s swimming has flourished. She has been among the elite of Division II sprinters for three years.

In addition to her three individual championships, Kylander has been on 12 title-winning relay teams.

She has been a part of four record-setting relay teams. Northridge is the record-holder in the 200- and 800-yard freestyles and the 200- and 400-yard medleys. The 400-yard freestyle relay, which will be held today, is the only relay record that has eluded CSUN and Kylander.

“They have a shot at it,” Accardy said.

The event will be the meet’s last race.

“It would be a nice way for her to go out,” Accardy said.