Geehr, 12, Isn’t in Over Her Head

Carly Geehr doesn’t always play with kids her own age.

This weekend, Geehr, a 12-year-old from La Canada, competes at the Phillips 66 U.S. National Championships in Nashville, where many of the participants will be twice her age.

Geehr will be one of the youngest competitors at the championships. She competed in the Spring Nationals earlier this year but the meet was missing the top college swimmers, who were preparing for the NCAA championships.

Because the championships serve as the qualifying meet for the next year’s World Championships, every top American swimmer will be competing, including Olympic gold medal winners Amy Van Dyken, Jenny Thompson and Amanda Beard.

“I really excited,” Geehr said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun all week.”

Geehr began swimming almost by accident. A neighborhood friend dared her.

“A boy down the street said he was going to beat me,” Geehr said. “I’m a very competitive person. I don’t think he’s swimming anymore.”

At the Spring Nationals in Buffalo, Geehr finished seventh in the 100-meter breaststroke. She also won the 200 breaststroke at the Speedo Western Region Junior Nationals in College Station, Texas. In Nashville, Geehr will compete in both breaststroke events and the individual medleys.

Geehr is trying to follow in the footsteps of Beard and Rose Bowl Aquatics teammate Jennifer Parmenter, who won national titles at 13. Geehr isn’t at that level yet--she hopes to make the finals in her events--but she may be soon.

“She has a lot of potential,” said Rose Bowl Coach Terry Stoddard. “It’s not out of the question for her to be at the Olympics in 2000 or 2004.”

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Three swimmers from the region are likely qualifiers for the U.S. team that will compete in the World Championships at Perth early next year.

Parmenter, 16, who won three national titles last spring, will compete in five events in Nashville. The Granada Hills resident will swim in both individual medleys, the 200 and 400 freestyles and the 200 backstroke. She hoped to compete in six events but was unable to get into the 50 freestyle.

She has shaken off a lackluster performance in the Janet Evans Invitational, where she didn’t finish higher than third in any event. The meet came in the middle of her heaviest training.

“This is one that really matters,” Parmenter said. “I’ve been training really well.”

Kristine Quance of Northridge is doing Parmenter two better, competing in seven events. Quance, who set two national high school records at Granada Hills High and led USC to the NCAA women’s championship last spring, will compete in the long-course 400 individual medley for the first time since she was disqualified in the Olympic Trials last year.

Among the men, Lenny Krayzelburg of Studio City has the best chance. Krayzelburg, a senior at USC who attended Fairfax High, has pulled alongside former Trojan teammate Brad Bridgewater, who is considered the nation’s best backstroker.

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Nicole Beck and Rebecca Gilman still live in Ventura, but have ended their associations with the Buenaventura Swim Club.

Gilman switched to Santa Barbara earlier this year to train alongside future USC teammate Alexis Binder.

Beck, who will be a senior at Buena High, followed suit last month, carpooling with Gilman each morning for workouts.

Both will compete in Nashville, Gilman in distance freestyle events and Beck in the backstroke.

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Geehr, Heather Boylan of Saugus High and Kenny Carpenter of Crescenta Valley will swim in the Speedo West Region Junior Championships in Clovis, Aug. 5-9. . . . Ventura divers Troy and Justin Dumais compete in the U.S. Senior Diving Championships in Dallas on Aug 12-17. . . . Michelle Jacobs of Ventura--a 1996 Buena High graduate--won the 400 and 800 meter freestyles at the Maccabiah Games in Ramat Gan, Israel. Ryan Parmenter of Hart High won six gold medals in junior competition.