SWIMMING / U.S. OLYMPIC TRIALS : Thompson Sets Another Record

Jenny Thompson started the 1992 U.S. Olympic trials with a world record in the 100-meter freestyle and ended them Friday night with an American record in the 50 freestyle.

The Stanford freshman broke the American record twice in the sprint, eclipsing Leigh Ann Fetter’s 1991 mark of 25.50 seconds with a 25.44 in the preliminaries and 25.20 in the finals.

“I knew Angel (Martino) and Leigh Ann had records in the past, and that I would have to swim at record time to make the team,” Thompson said. “My game plan was to stay loose and swim longer while working with my coaches. I wanted to go out fast and stay strong.”

Fetter was in the lane next to Thompson for both swims. In the second race, Fetter missed a berth on the team with a third-place finish in 25.55. Martino--formerly Angel Myers--took second in 25.46.

Earlier in the meet, Martino had gained a berth as an alternate on the 400 freestyle relay, but this was her first individual berth after finishing seventh in the 100 butterfly and sixth in the 100 freestyle.

Martino was removed from the ’88 Olympic team after testing positive for anabolic steroids.

“My goal since I was little was to make the Olympic team,” she said.

Thompson earned the Phillips Performance Award in a vote of reporters for her world-record freestyle swim of 54.48 on Sunday.

The 19-year-old from Dover, N.H., has a chance to win four medals in the ’92 Games in Barcelona, Spain, and possibly a fifth if she is the top American 100 freestyler. That would give her a berth on the 400 medley relay team.

In the biggest upset of Friday night, Ron Karnaugh, 25, of the Mission Viejo Nadadores, made the Olympic team for the first time with a victory in the 200 individual medley.

Runner-up Greg Burgess, 20, of Jacksonville, Fla., also was not expected to make the team, not with David Wharton and Eric Namesnik in the field.

Wharton, a former USC All-American, set an American record in winning the 200 medley in the ’88 trials, a race in which Karnaugh placed third, missing the Olympic team by one berth.

Here, though, Karnaugh led from start to finish and staved off a hard-charging field in the final freestyle leg.

Karnaugh touched ahead of Burgess in 2:01.56. Mike Barrowman was third, Namesnik fourth and Wharton fifth.

Until Friday, the freestyle leg was Karnaugh’s Achilles’ heel. He lost leads on that leg at the 1990 Goodwill Games and the 1991 spring nationals.

“That has happened many times,” Karnaugh said. “This time, I took a different approach, and I tried to (swim the leadoff butterfly leg) a little slower and build into the race.”

Nadadore Coach Terry Stoddard lost his voice cheering on Karnaugh, who delayed starting medical school in a last-ditch effort to make the team.

“I’m still pinching myself,” Karnaugh said. “It’s so hard to believe. There hasn’t been a day in the past four years I haven’t thought of this day.”

In the 1,500 freestyle, Sean Killion became the first American since 1988 to break 15:10. Killion’s 15:07.21 is still well shy of George DiCarlo’s 1984 American record of 15:01.51, but Killion’s time and that of runner-up Lawrence Frostad of Sacramento, 15:09.93, indicate that the U.S. men are improving in one of their weakest events.

Summer Sanders of Roseville, Calif., earned her fourth berth with a victory in the 200 butterfly in 2:08.86. She won easily despite breathing on every stroke.

Angie Wester-Krieg, 27, who trains with Sanders and the Stanford team, gained the other berth with a second-place finish in 2:12.13.

Janie Wagstaff and Lea Loveless repeated their finishes in the 100 backstroke, placing first and second in the 200 backstroke in 2:09.43 and 2:10.68, respectively.

Swimming Notes

Two world records, six American records and 17 pool records were set over the course of the six-day trials. . . . The 25-man, 15-woman Olympic team is the oldest in U.S. history. The average age of the men is 22.8 and the average age of the women is 20. The average age of the 1988 team was 22 for the men and 18.5 for the women. “In a real life of an athlete, 24 or 25 is young,” men’s Coach Eddie Reese said. “Swimmers used to succumb to the cry of economics.”

Nine Californians made the team, far fewer than in 1984 when 18 were on it, or 1988 when California was represented by 13 swimmers. Two of them, Janet Evans of Placentia and Joel Thomas of Pasadena, list the Southland as their hometowns. Both train elsewhere, however, in Austin, Tex., and Ft. Lauderdale Fla., respectively.