SWIMMING / PACIFIC 10 CHAMPIONSHIPS : UCLA’s Depold Defeats Thompson Again

UCLA freshman Richelle Depold couldn’t believe her eyes. She looked again and again at the scoreboard with the 22.58 next to Lane 5.

“I thought it was (Jenny Thompson’s) time,” Depold said of Stanford’s sophomore Olympic gold medalist.

Not only did Depold’s 22.58 Sunday night represent her career best in the 50-yard freestyle, it marked an upset over Thompson, America’s best sprinter, in the Pacific 10 Conference women’s swimming championships at Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach.

“All my teammates and people in the crowd are so excited that I beat Jenny Thompson, but I see her as a regular swimmer,” Depold said. “I haven’t thought about her title: world record-holder in the 100 freestyle. It gives me a lot of confidence to have beaten her. Maybe it’ll be like Matt (Biondi) and Tom (Jager), back and forth between us.”

Thompson, who suffered a rare defeat Jan. 29 when Depold beat her at the UCLA-Stanford dual meet, finished in 22.85, after a slow dive off the blocks and a misjudged turn that left her too close to the wall.

Depold’s time, 0.30 seconds better than her previous best, broke Thompson’s 1992 meet record of 22.64, although it was well short of the Thompson’s NCAA record of 22.14. Although her victory had not sunk in an hour after the race, Depold said she knows that winning at the NCAA meet March 18-20 at Minneapolis is the real test.

“That’s why I’m trying to brush it off,” she said. “Because you don’t know what’s going to happen in two weeks.”

Thompson’s loss was the exception on a night when she rallied two relays to victory to help Stanford, the defending NCAA champions and winners of all six Pac-10 championships since their inception, win four of five events on the first of three days of competition.

The Cardinal’s Janel Jorgensen was won the 200 individual medley in 1:58.41, breaking the 1992 meet record of Olympic gold medalist Summer Sanders.