SWIMMING / THERESA MUNOZ : Three Among 10 Finalists for Sullivan Award

Mike Barrowman, Pablo Morales and Summer Sanders are among the 10 finalists for the Sullivan Award, presented annually since 1930 to the nation’s outstanding amateur athlete. It is the first time three swimmers have made the final consideration.

The last time one sport was represented by three athletes was in 1976, when track and field’s Ron Laird, Arnie Robinson and eventual winner Bruce Jenner made the final list.

The other finalists for the award, which will be presented March 8 at Indianapolis, are wrestler Bruce Baumgartner, speedskater Bonnie Blair, figure skater Kristi Yamuguchi, Montebello boxer Oscar De La Hoya, Los Angeles sprinter Gail Devers, diver Mark Lenzi and hurdler Kevin Young, a former UCLA All-American.

Barrowman, 24, of Potomac, Md., is a four-time nominee and a finalist for the third consecutive year. Since 1988, he has lowered the world record in the 200-meter breaststroke six times, including a gold-medal performance of 2 minutes 10.16 seconds at the Olympic Games in Barcelona.

Between a fourth-place finish in the 1988 Games in Seoul and his gold-medal effort in Barcelona, Barrowman lost only one 200 breaststroke race, at the 1992 Olympic trials. The race took place only weeks after Barrowman’s father, Ray, was stricken by a brain tumor.

Barrowman refused to make excuses for a swim that was three seconds slower than his world record.

“If I was looking for excuses I could have 100, but it wouldn’t make any difference,” Barrowman said. “This will burn in me for a long time.”

Two weeks after the trials, Ray Barrowman died. Four months later, his son won the gold medal, completing his quest for swimming’s triple crown--an Olympic gold medal, a world championship and a world record.

Morales, 28, came out of retirement 12 months before the Games and scored one of the most improbable victories in Barcelona, winning the 100 butterfly and swimming the butterfly leg on the gold-medal winning, world record-tying 400 medley relay.

Four years earlier, as a world record-holder--he still has the world record of 52.84 in the 100 butterfly--the Santa Clara resident barely fell short of making the U.S. team in three attempts during the trials.

Like Barrowman, Morales suffered personal tragedy on the way to fulfilling his dream. During the early stages of his comeback his mother, Blanca, died.

Sanders, 20, of Roseville, won gold medals in the 200 butterfly and as a preliminaries swimmer on the 400 medley relay team at Barcelona.

She also earned a silver in the 200 individual medley and a bronze in the 400 individual medley, giving her the most Olympic medals by an American female swimmer since Shirley Babashoff in 1976.

In the 200 and 400 individual medleys, Sanders broke two of Tracy Caulkins’ long-standing American records, and she dominated the 1992 NCAA meet for Stanford.

Track and field athletes have won the Sullivan Award 33 times. Swimmers have won it nine times, beginning with Ann Curtis in 1944 and followed by Don Schollander in 1964, Debbie Meyer in 1968, John Kinsella in 1970, Mark Spitz in 1971, Tim Shaw in 1975, John Naber in 1977, Tracy Caulkins in 1978 and Janet Evans in 1989.

Swimming notes

National team director Dennis Pursley lost some power during U.S. Swimming’s recent reorganization. In a move that divided U.S. Swimming into three areas--performance development, administration and member services--Pursley will report to John Troup, performance development director and the former director of the now-defunct sports medicine and sports science division. . . . Bob Steele, coach and athlete development director, and Audrius Barzdukas, sports science director, also will report to Troup.

Last Thursday at the Southeastern Conference championships, Florida’s Greg Burgess broke Martin Zubero’s 1991 NCAA 200-yard individual medley record of 1:44.01 with a time of 1:43.97. Burgess’ swim also broke the American record of 1:44.70 held by former USC All-American David Wharton since 1989. . . . UCLA freshman Richelle Depold and Stanford sophomore Jenny Thompson, the world record-holder in the 100-meter freestyle and a 1992 U.S. Olympian, are expected to resume their rivalry in the 50-yard freestyle in the Pacific 10 women’s meet Sunday through March 2 at Belmont Plaza pool in Long Beach. Depold scored a rare victory over Thompson in the UCLA-Stanford meet with a time of 23.03 to Thompson’s 23.18.

An eyelash separated the 400 medley relay teams of UCLA and USC at their dual meet last Saturday. The Bruins’ Michael Andrews, Greg Schaffer, Michael Picotte and Brian Kurza touched in 3:20.04. Trojans Jason Stelle, Mike Mason, Frank Wattles and John Steel finished in 3:20.06. . . . Skip Kenney, coach of defending NCAA men’s champion Stanford, will coach the U.S. men’s team that will compete in the Pan Pacific meet Aug. 12-15 in Kobe, Japan. Alabama Coach Jonty Skinner will assist Kenney. Dick Shoulberg, Germantown (Pa.) Academy’s coach, will guide the women’s team. Harvard Coach Mike Chasson will be Shoulberg’s assistant.

Top finishers at the U.S. Swimming summer nationals, July 26-31 in Austin, Tex., will be selected for the Pan Pacific team. . . . U.S. Swimming scientists and Georgia Tech scientists have formed a cooperative sports-science training center in Atlanta in preparation for the 1996 Olympic Games. . . . Construction is on schedule at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., on a 10-lane, 50-meter pool that U.S. Swimming will use extensively in preparing for the ’96 Olympic Games. The pool, which is part of a $12-million project that includes a gymnasium, is expected to open Sept. 13. It features an overhead catwalk and an underwater window for filming swimmers’ strokes, starts and turns. A giant TV screen will provide instant replay as soon as a swimmer touches the wall. The technology is also designed to offer motion analysis. The facility will be used strictly for training camps; even if it was designed to accommodate spectators, at 7,000 feet the competition times would be too slow to interest national and world-class competitors.

COMING EVENTS: NCAA--Feb. 28-March 2: Pac-10 women’s meet at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach; March 4-6: Pac-10 men’s meet in Seattle; March 18-20: NCAA women’s meet, Minneapolis; March 25-27: NCAA men’s meet, Indianapolis. U.S. Swimming--March 23-27: Junior Nationals West, Belmont Plaza; March 31-April 4: U.S. Nationals, Nashville, Tenn.