It’s a Race Against the Clock : Colleges: El Camino’s Jeane Barrett not only swims some of the best times in the state, but her hectic schedule keeps her on the run away from the pool.

Winning races hasn’t been too much of a problem this season for Jeane Barrett of the undefeated El Camino College women’s swim team. But finding the time to get to them has sometimes been a concern.

To make it financially, the self-supporting, 19-year-old Hermosa Beach resident takes care of her landlord’s small children. She is also a Los Angeles County lifeguard, working part time in the spring and full time in the summer, and carries a full load of classes.

Her hectic schedule often forces her to miss practices with her El Camino teammates and to do some unusual things in order to get there.

Last week she had to bring one of the youngsters she baby-sits to the workout and a poolside interview. While her teammates swam laps, Barrett chased the young girl around to keep her out of mischief. Long before the team’s two-hour practice ended, she left to pick up the other child at school.

None of this has prevented Barrett from emerging as the Warriors’ best all-around swimmer. The sophomore has anchored an El Camino women’s team (7-0) that is on track to win the South Coast Conference title and qualify for the state meet on April 30 through May 2 at Long Beach’s Belmont Plaza.

“If she can’t be here during practice, she’ll come in at odd times and make it up,” sophomore breaststroker Amy Baer said. “She’s very dedicated.”

Barrett competes in the 50- and the 100-yard backstroke, the 200- and the 500-yard freestyle and the 100 and 200 individual medleys. Her strongest events are the 100 and 200 medleys and the 100 back. She has gone undefeated in those events in dual meets this season and ranks third in the state in the 200 medley.

“She competes in every event we have because she’s our best all-around swimmer,” El Camino Coach Corey Stanbury said. “She’s definitely the most versatile swimmer on this team. She can do it all.”

Barrett says swimming in an array of events makes competing fun. She likes them all, although she claims sprinting is not her forte.

“It makes swimming a lot better,” she said. “If I just did the same event in every meet, it would be boring.”

The 200 medley is Barrett’s favorite. Her only defeat this season was a second-place finish at the Questa Invitational, a meet that includes the state’s top junior college swimmers. Although she didn’t win the race, she had a season-best time of 2 minutes 20.7 seconds.

“I like the 200 because it’s diverse,” she said. “You really have to think about what you’re doing. It’s a strategy race for me. I like to think when I’m out there.”

As a freshman, Barrett led the Warriors to a 7-1 record and a second-place finish in the SCC. She also broke El Camino records in the 50 back (30.67) and 100 back (1:05.49).

She also placed second at the SCC meet in the 100 medley (1:04.94), 200 medley (2:18.85) and the 100 back (1:05.49). She qualified for the state meet in those events and was named an All-American.

All of this occurred after she took a six-month hiatus from swimming.

“I had burnt out on swimming because I started when I was 6,” Barrett said. “I got away from it completely for six to seven months for the first time in my life.

“Coming back was very hard and frustrating at first because I couldn’t swim as long or as fast as I used to. I got so out of shape . . . .”

Stanbury, who has coached numerous top-notch junior swimmers at the club level, says Barrett made an incredible comeback. He expects her to do better at this year’s state meet and says she will compete only in her four best events (the 50 and 100 back and the 100 and 200 medley).

“I hope (Barrett can finish) in the top three in the 200 IM and in the top eight in the other events,” he said. “She’s swimming faster this year and I feel she can do it.”

Barrett qualified for the Southern Section meet during each of her four years at Capistrano Valley High. She was a standout in the 100-yard backstroke and the 200 medley as a freshman and sophomore but admits she wasn’t as dedicated during her last two years at the Mission Viejo school, where she was class valedictorian.

Barrett says she slacked off because she was tired of the rigorous training schedule she had followed for most of her life.

“I think I just needed the break,” she said. “Swimming was my whole life for so long, I had no social life at all. Now I don’t think I could ever give up swimming.”

Last summer she was a member of two L.A. County lifeguard teams that won U.S. Lifesavings championship titles.

Top lifeguards from throughout the country compete in the grueling annual event that includes paddle runs, endurance races and rescues.

Barrett was one of nine lifeguards on the L.A. County women’s team that beat 15 others in August for its national title in New York.

She was one of only nine women to earn a place on a 34-member co-ed team later that month. L.A. County won the championship by easily defeating about 30 other teams in Chicago.

Lifeguards are selected to represent their area based on their performance in summer-long endurance competitions known as the Bud Light series.

“It was like an honor for me to make the team,” Barrett said. “It was one of my goals to be in good enough shape to make it.”

Barrett plans to attend UC Santa Barbara next year and major in anatomy or biology. Her collegiate swimming career will end at El Camino, but she intends to remain involved with the sport as a lifeguard, a triathlete and later as a masters swimmer.

The sport on which she burned out as a youth has turned out to be a way of life for the Warriors’ best all-around swimmer.

“It’s a daily routine now,” she said. “I could never stop. It would be like missing a meal.”