SWIMMING / THERESA SMITH MUNOZ : Hudepohl Is a Teen-ager on the Fast Track

World-class male sprinters usually don’t come of age in terms of stroke development until their early to mid-20s. For several years, Stanford freshman Joe Hudepohl, 19, has been attempting to accelerate that process.

At 17, Hudepohl became the youngest man to break 50 seconds in the 100-meter freestyle; and at 18, he became the youngest man to break 1:49 in the 200-meter freestyle.

After three years of work, he made a breakthrough last month on a key element of his stroke--the hip roll.

“I knew what I wanted to do, but I couldn’t feel it,” Hudepohl said. “Now I’m starting to feel it, especially on my non-breathing side.”

Hudepohl, the youngest member of the 1992 U.S. Olympic men’s swimming team, is also learning to manipulate his stroke and to keep it together when he is tired near the end of a race.

“It’s not only about swimming fast, but swimming fast right,” he said. “And I haven’t even learned nearly as much as I hope to learn. It’s a long process.”

Its complexity helps Hudepohl stay motivated in a non-Olympic year.

“I’m still excited about swimming, but you can tell that the Olympics are a long way off,” he said. “You can feel it. A lot of people are relaxing this year.”

Angie Wester-Krieg, Hudepohl’s club teammate, is not among them.

The 29-year-old late bloomer, an unexpected member of the ’92 U.S. Olympic team, turned in several midseason lifetime bests at the Chrysler Swim Meet of Champions in Mission Viejo, June 17-20.

“For other swimmers who have taken trips around the world, they have seemingly only the Olympics to concentrate on,” Wester-Krieg said. “But I have a lot of other intermediary goals that they have probably already accomplished.”

One of those is to compete in the Pan Pacific Championships Aug. 12-15 in Kobe, Japan. The top two finishers in each event at the national championships July 26-30 in Austin, Tex., will advance to the Pan Pacific meet.

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Unlike many members of the ’92 U.S. Olympic team who are unsure about their futures in the sport, Jeff Rouse, 23, is committed to swimming through the 1996 Olympics. Rouse, a 1992 Stanford graduate, made that decision immediately after the 100 backstroke in Barcelona. That is, immediately after Canadian Mark Tewksbury beat him for the gold medal.

Although he rebounded from the upset loss to Tewksbury to set the world 100 backstroke record while leading off the U.S. gold medal-winning 400 medley relay, it didn’t make up for his disappointing loss.

“I still feel like something’s missing,” Rouse said. “So that’s why I’m out here. I’m itching to get back into it with all my heart, but I have to back off a little bit so I don’t burn myself out. I have to be really excited those last three years.”

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Brian Alderman of the Santa Barbara Swim Club took the first step in his comeback from a knee operation when he won the spring national championships in the 100-meter butterfly in 54.11 seconds.

The No. 1-ranked 100 butterflyer (53.38) in the country in 1991 and fourth-fastest American ever, Alderman underwent major reconstructive surgery seven months before the ’92 Olympic trials. Without full strength and mobility in his knee, he tried to make the team but came up short, placing 10th in 54.79.

Fifteen months later, Alderman said he has recovered 100% from a mental standpoint, 60% from a physical standpoint.

With ’92 Olympic gold medalist and world record-holder Pablo Morales expected to retire again in August, Alderman wants to step in.

“I think the event is wide open right now,” he said. “That’s why I’m pushing so hard.”

Arizona’s Seth Pepper, the NCAA champion in the 100-yard butterfly and the third-place finisher in the ’92 Olympic trials in the 100-meter butterfly, also has designs on filling the void Morales’ retirement will create.

Pepper realizes, however, that there is a vast difference between mastery of the short course, 100-yard butterfly, and that of the long course, 100-meter butterfly. The short course is swum on a 25-yard pool, so there are three turns in the race. Swum in a 50-meter pool, the 100-meter race requires more swimming, less pushing off walls.

“I know I have the speed,” said Pepper, whose best time in the 100-meter race is 54.37 seconds. “I just need more experience.”

Pepper, 22, has been swimming only since he was 15.

Swimming Notes

The 22nd Los Angeles Invitational, July 8-11 at McDonald’s Olympic Swim Stadium on the USC campus, has been renamed the Janet Evans Invitational. The name was changed after Evans’ corporate sponsors stepped up to pay travel fees for most of the top swimmers in the meet.

“It’s kind of funny,” Evans said. “I kind of laugh when people say, ‘Are you dead?’ ”

Along with Evans, the leading entrants include: Spanish Olympic gold medalist and 200 backstroke world record-holder Martin Zubero, American record-holders and ’92 Olympians Greg Burgess, Royce Sharp, Nicole Haislett and Janie Wagstaff and four-time national champion Kristine Quance of Northridge.

The following Southland swimmers are among the 104 selected for the U.S. Olympic Festival, July 24-26 at San Antonio, Tex.: Charles Girdlestone, 18, Conejo-Simi Aquatics, 100/200 backstroke; Sara Nichols, 16, Conejo-Simi Aquatics, 400/800 freestyle; butterflyer Chris Pelant, 17, Buenaventura Swim Club; backstroker John Simmons, 18, Irvine Novaquatics; Allison Mijares, 16, Golden West Swim Club, 400 freestyle; Joel Gustafson, 18, Buenaventura Swim Club, 100 breaststroke; Jeff Julian, 18, Industry Hills Aquatics, 200 butterfly; Daniel Miles, 18, Industry Hills Aquatics, 200 individual medley; Michelle Collins, 16, North Coast Aquatics, 100 butterfly; Laura Kline, 16, Blue Fin Swim Team, 200 freestyle; Alyssa Resch, 15, Santa Barbara Swim Club, 100 backstroke.

UCLA men’s Coach Ron Ballatore will coach the South team. Bruin women’s Coach Cyndi Gallagher is a South assistant coach. . . . Arkansas’ men’s program has been given a two-year reprieve--on a partially funded basis--in the wake of a recently filed reverse-discrimination suit. The program was expected to be dropped after the 1994 season so that the school could add women’s volleyball.

UPCOMING: July 8-11: Janet Evans Invitational, USC; July 9-14: World University Games, Buffalo, N.Y.; July 24-26: U.S. Olympic Festival, San Antonio, Tex.; July 26-30: U.S. Swimming National Championships, Austin, Tex.