Swimmers

The co-captain of the Kenyon College women's swim team was killed when the school van slid on an icy road into a highway guardrail and rolled several times. Ten other swimmers were injured. The swimmers of the championship team were returning from a meet against North Carolina. They were about 30 miles from their school in Gambier, Ohio, when the accident happened about 6:40 p.m. Thursday. Molly Hatcher, a 21-year-old senior from Evanston, Ill., was tossed from the van and died in the crash on U.S. 36 about 65 miles east of Columbus, the State Highway Patrol said yesterday.

Radnor coach Tom Robinson says he enjoys the luxury of being able to place some of his swimmers in different events to see how they fare. Because his team is 9-0 overall and 5-0 in the Central League, he gets ample opportunity to experiment. During the Red Raiders' 101-60 victory over Lower Merion on Thursday, Robinson used three of his best swimmers in new events. Steve Gord won the 100-yard freestyle, and fellow senior Jon Greene finished second in the 100 breaststroke.

David Berkoff, an Olympic medalist, swam his first dog paddle in the chilly waters of the Upper Moreland Swim Club more than 20 years ago. Last week, he returned to that club, tucked between the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Warminster Road in Upper Moreland, to give something back to the sport that he says had given him so much. Berkoff splashed his way to two medals, a silver and a gold, in the backstroke at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. This summer he is living at home in Huntingdon Valley and training at Germantown Academy, aiming for the Pan Pacific Games in Edmonton, Alberta, this month and, ultimately, for a spot on the 1992 U.S. Olympic team.

One of the casualties of construction delays for this summer's Athens Olympics has been the swimming pool's roof, a prospect that promises 95-degree competitions and sun-blinded backstrokers. "The biggest factor for backstrokers would be the shadow that's cast on the pool," Aaron Peirsol said yesterday during the U.S. Olympic team media summit. "You're staring right into the sun, and then all of a sudden you [hit the shadow] and your eyes just black out. " Peirsol, 20, a silver medalist in the 200-meter backstroke at the 2000 Olympics, was unusual among American swimmers who discussed the subject yesterday in that he said he would enjoy the complications the roofless venue may present.

Grace Cornelius might hold every swimming record at Episcopal Academy - if she participated in all swim events. Most swimmers compete in two or three events per 10-event meet. Friday afternoon, Cornelius won the 50-yard freestyle race in 23.052 to set her seventh record at the school in a 102-67 Inter-Ac League win over visiting Agnes Irwin. Cornelius, a junior, transferred to Episcopal from Baldwin this year after eight years at the all-girls school. The reason for the transfer had nothing to do with swimming.

Heidi Camp and Jen Hoeberg were standout swimmers at Haddonfield High and have continued their domination of the competition at Ursinus College. The two combined for six medals at the Middle Atlantic Conference championships last month. Camp, a senior co-captain, collected four medals, including a gold in the 50-yard freestyle. It was the first swimming gold for an Ursinus woman in six years. Camp also earned a silver in the 200 freestyle relay, a fifth-place medal in the 200 freestyle and a sixth place in the 100 freestyle to wind up her college career with 13 conference medals.

A month after her swim team's fatal bus crash near Notre Dame University in Indiana, Alicia Feehery, 19, is still having trouble remembering what day it is. "There's no beginning or end to days. My mind is constantly wandering," said Feehery, a 1990 graduate of Cardinal O'Hara High School and a Notre Dame sophomore. Two of her teammates were killed, including one seated in her row, and 34 other passengers were injured in the Jan. 24 wreck in which their chartered bus turned upside down after losing control in a blinding snowstorm near South Bend, Ind. Feehery is now back in her dormitory battling neck and back injuries.

The seventh annual Lower Makefield Swim Team Invitational last weekend attracted more than 500 swimmers from 17 swim clubs to the Lower Makefield Swim Club in Yardley. The meet yielded 13 multiple winners. Three swimmers won four events: Lower Makefield Swim Team's Jill Kremzier in 13-14 girls and Michelle Karam in 9-10 girls, and Newtown Swim Club's Bill Mahler in 13-14 boys. Triple-winners were Johnna Gans in 18-and-under girls for Hatboro YMCA Swim Club; James Gaynor in 18-and-under boys for Winchester Swim Club; Stephen Beede in 11-12 boys for Lower Makefield; Tom Yaegel in 9-10 boys for Richboro; Erin Dunn in the 8-and-under girls for Bensalem Aquatic Club, and Robert Carmody in the 8-and-under boys for Northampton Valley Swim Club.

For much of the year, Sean Carson, a member of the Suburban Swim Club, practices and competes against some of the best swimmers in the area. And then the scholastic season starts. Carson, along with schoolmates Debbie and Ken Alloway go to Garnet Valley, where there is no swim team. Like JoJo Carey at Ridley, and Matt McKernan at Springfield, they spend their winters practicing and waiting. But Saturday, all of them will join the best of Southeastern Pennsylvania's scholastic swimmers at the District 1 championships at the University of Pennsylvania.

David Alleva started counting the strokes as he passed Harrah's Marina Hotel Casino. Jellyfish, strong currents, the blinding sun - it's no fun being an ocean marathon swimmer. But half an hour later, as he passed a crowd of revelers on the deck of Donald Trump's yacht yesterday, Alleva's spirits lifted. Within a few minutes, the 25-year-old molecular biology student from Virginia would win the 22 1/2- mile World Championship Ocean Marathon Swim. He left the water with energy to spare.