POOLING A RIDE: VOGT GETS SWIM SCHOLARSHIP TO ARIZONA

For most people, competing in the Olympics is about as realistic a goal as becoming president of the United States. The odds of either happening are extremely long.

Cape Girardeau's Erin Vogt has no dreams of becoming this country's first female president. But she does have her sights set on swimming in the 2000 Olympics. And by all accounts, that's not as long a shot as one might imagine.

Vogt is ranked No. 1 nationally among high school-age swimmers in the 100 butterfly. She recently attended the Eagle Camp at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, where only the top swimmer nationally in each event was invited. She was also recently named to the 1997 U.S. Swimming Scholastic All America Team.

And on Friday, Vogt signed a national letter of intent with the University of Arizona, which has one of the nation's top women's swimming programs and finished fourth in last season's NCAA Championships.

"I'm really excited (about signing with Arizona)," said Vogt, who was also heavily recruited by most of the nation's other top women's programs, including defending national champion USC. "I've always really liked it a lot. Their coaches are great."

Although Vogt grew up in Cape Girardeau and attended Central High through her junior year, she will finish high school at Marquette in suburban St. Louis, where she is a senior. Vogt and her mother Pat have moved to St. Louis in order for Erin to train at the renowned Rockwood Swim Club. Her father, Pat's husband Fred, has remained in Cape.

While Vogt said it was somewhat difficult to leave her friends behind in Cape for her senior year of high school, she said the decision actually became fairly easy based on what the move could do for her swimming career.

"I miss my friends, but it's a sacrifice you have to make," she said. "I really wanted to do it. My mom told me if I felt strong enough about it, she would move with me.

"I stayed up there over the summer with a friend of mine and I actually planned to come back to Central for my senior year. But I saw how much better I got (training with the Rockwood Swim Club), so I definitely wanted to stay there for my senior year."

And as far as missing her friends, well, one of Vogt's very closest friends has always lived in St. Louis and trains with her on the Rockwood Swim Club. So that also helped make the move easy.

"I've known this girl since I was 5. I just met her through swimming and we've always been best friends, but it's mainly been a long-distance thing," said Vogt, who is both extremely personable and enthusiastic. "So now we swim on the same club and we get to be together all the time, so it's really great."

In order to compete in age-group events, Vogt only swam one season at Central High but what a season it was. As a freshman, she won state titles in the 200 individual medley and 100 butterfly, was named MVP of the state meet and set a state record in the 100 butterfly that still stands.

Vogt continued to fare well in non-school swimming competition the next two years. But it wasn't until she spent this past summer in St. Louis training with Rockwood that her times began to dramatically improve and give her hopes for making the 2,000 Olympics.

Since the summer, Vogt has dropped her 100 butterfly time from 1:03.7 to 1:02.7.

"One second doesn't sound like a lot, but it's like two different levels," she said. "I think it's mainly because the coaching staff here is really excellent and the other swimmers are all so good, so everybody just pushes each other."

Said Jim Halliburton, a former world-class swimmer who coaches the Rockwood Swim Club, "I started working full time with Erin in June. Her improvement has been amazing. It's really unusual for someone to improve that much at her age. You see it a lot at about 13 or 14 but not at 17.

"I think her training with us has made a big difference. We have a lot of good competition at practice for her to train with and we worked a lot harder and swam more laps than she was used to. It was definitely a good move for her to come here."

Vogt trains about 1 1/2 hours early each morning before school and then about two hours later in the day after school. She acknowledges that all the work is "a grind sometimes, but I really love swimming. I don't look at it as something I have to do. I just really enjoy doing it."

And with her recent improvement, No. 1 ranking nationally and scholarship to Arizona, Vogt will continue to put in whatever time it takes in order to reach her goal of swimming in the Olympics.

"All little kids dream about something like that, but now it's more like within realistic sights for me," she said. "I know it's going to be hard, but what I've been able to do lately really has me excited."

And Halliburton says Vogt's goal is not something that looks like nothing more than a shot in the dark.

"I think she does have (Olympic potential)," he said. "She'll have to keep improving, but she's so competitive and such a hard worker. I can't imagine her ever letting very many people beat her.

"Yeah, she'll have a chance."