Gassner Emerges as Wave of Future : Hart Sophomore-to-Be Eager to Plunge Into Festival With Eye on Olympic Trials

Lindsay Gassner of Valencia has yet to become disillusioned by bills and junk mail. The arrival of a letter carrier is an event worthy of a race to the mailbox.

Already, college swimming coaches are writing to Gassner in the hope that she will consider their school when she graduates from Hart High in 1994.

“I walk out there every day and stick my hand in the box,” Gassner said. “I do it every day. It is fun.”

Last month, Gassner spent more time than usual hovering near her mailbox.

Each day at 1 p.m., she checked for a letter from United States Swimming, the governing body of the sport, whose officials had selected 104 swimmers out of 400 who qualified, for the U.S. Olympic Festival in Los Angeles. The swimming events will start Saturday and run through July 15.

Gassner, who recently turned 15, was worried that she might not be selected.

“I wasn’t sure because an Olympic coach told me at Spring Nationals that the top 16 would definitely get in and I was 21st,” she said of her 26.97-second clocking in the 50-meter freestyle.

When Gassner proved to be the second-fastest eligible swimmer, and the letter of truth arrived in the mail, she was ecstatic.

“I’m really excited because this is one of the major competitions of the summer,” she said.

Moreover, it is Gassner’s first national team experience. All of the Festival’s swimming entrants have to be 18 and under, without national team experience, and fast enough to have qualified for Spring Nationals, which were held April 3-7 in Federal Way, Wash.

Gassner’s participation in the national championships was her first, marking a giant step up from the Spring Junior nationals in which she took sixth in 1990.

It was an eye-opening experience for her.

“You see these girls you’ve watched for years and you say, ‘Wow, I’m at senior nationals too. Maybe I’ll be that fast.’ ”

In particular, Gassner enjoyed swimming in the same pool as 1991 world champion Nicole Haislett, a sophomore-to-be at Florida.

“I like her because she’s a sprinter and she was the best high school swimmer,” Gassner said. “Plus, I thought it was really cool when she showed a muscle pose with her prom dress on.

“It was neat watching her swim and seeing the finals. It tells me how fast I’m gonna have to go.”

Canyon Aquatics coaches Bruce Patmos and Jennifer Salles-Cunha have recently increased Gassner’s training to the national-caliber level, with two workouts per day five days a week and a solo practice on Saturday.

Gassner has yet to train two-a-days during the school year and limited them last summer to three days per week.

Her regimen also has been bolstered by weight training, three days per week the past six weeks.

“I’m really tired and really tight all the time,” Gassner said.

Presumably, the weight training will enhance one of her strengths, her explosive start. “I’m usually in the water first and out ahead,” said Gassner, whose 5-foot-11 and 130-pound frame also comes in handy at the wall where she has out-touched several of her competitors.

The Southern Section championships last month in Long Beach were a case in point. Despite her freshman status, Gassner emerged with titles in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle in 23.65 and 50.77, respectively.

Except for a two-second drop in the 100 freestyle that earned her a berth in junior nationals as a 12-year-old, Gassner has made steady progress.

The same cannot be said of her height increases.

At the beginning of sixth grade, she stood 5-2, but by the end of the year she was 5-7.

A year later, she was up to 5-9, and she reached her current stature in the spring of 1990.

Although Gassner has little competition on her team, several of the 13- and 14-year-old boys are catching up and making her training sessions more challenging.

“They have a lot of energy,” Gassner said. “They are pushing me.”

Gassner recently went off the weights and high-yardage training.

Like most of the Festival participants, she will attempt to make a strong showing without exhausting herself for the Summer Nationals, Aug. 12-16, in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

“I think I’ll do pretty good because I went to CIF on only three days’ rest,” Gassner said.

Her goal is to make the Olympic Trials in the 50 freestyle, which would require a 26.89, just ahead of her best, 26.97.

In the 100 freestyle, she figures her chances are better at Summer Nationals. She probably will need the extra month of training to record a 57.69 or better, the time she needs for the Olympic Trials, which will be held next March in Indianapolis.

Her best 100 time is 1:00.53.

Along with the 50 and 100 freestyle, Gassner probably will swim the 100 butterfly at the Festival. It is an event she is trying to bring up to speed.

“I’m hoping it will be my third event,” she said. “It is getting a lot faster just because I’m getting stronger.”

As for her technique, a key in butterfly, Gassner said: “It is OK when I’m rested, but when I’m tired, it gets sloppy.”

Gassner’s performances the past few months have garnered attention that she doesn’t quite know how to handle.

“It is nice to have the attention,” Gassner said, “but I don’t want it to go overboard. I like to be normal.”

Her practice schedule doesn’t allow a normal alarm-clock setting, however.

The morning workout is from 6:45 to 8:45 a.m. at El Cariso Park, in a 50-meter pool in Sylmar, and the afternoon session lasts from 5 to 7 p.m. at College of the Canyons.

“Sometimes I wish I had more free time, but I guess it is better like this because I can discipline myself,” said Gassner, who has a 4.2 grade-point average.

Members of the volleyball and basketball teams at Hart take one look at her towering figure and implore her to come out for their teams, but there is simply no time.

Gassner is too busy singing songs in her head or thinking about her homework, and finding that her swimming practice, like her powerful freestyle stroke, flies by.