New Hampshire’s Audrey Mahoney Breaks 35-Year-Old Jenny Thompson Pool Record
New Hampshire senior sprinter Audrey Mahoney didn’t just take down a pool record on Friday. She downed a mark older than her from the state’s greatest ever swimmer.
Mahoney clocked in at 22.98 seconds Friday in a two-day dual meet against Central Connecticut State, erasing a pool record belonging to 12-time Olympic medalist Jenny Thompson.
Thompson’s mark had held since 1990 at 23.21 seconds. It was set while Thompson was still at Dover High School, from which she graduated in 1991, before embarking on a stellar career at Stanford and at four Olympics, yielding 12 total medals and eight gold to become then the most decorated female Olympic swimmer (she’s since been surpassed by Katie Ledecky). Thompson would go on to set nine individual world records, two in long-course, including the 100 free mark in 1992.
Mahoney had set her sights on Thompson’s superannuated record. In the Wildcats’ season opener, the senior captain from Downers Grove, Illinois, took down the pool record at Vermont’s Forbush Natatorium with a time of 23.52.
“After Audrey set that UVM pool record last weekend, I gave her a personal challenge for this weekend’s meet,” UNH head coach Josh Willman said in a press release. “She really came through, and it was fun to watch!”
Mahoney won the America East title in the 50 free as a freshman with a time of 23.17. She has continued to get faster, though a 23.10 as a sophomore was good for only second (she won the 100 free after finishing as the runner-up as a freshman) and then 22.94 as a junior for third. She repeated as the 100 free champ in 2025 and set the conference championship record.
Her best time is a 22.93 from the CSCAA National Invitational last March, at which she finished seventh.
UNH went on to a 243-110 win over CCSU in a two-day meet. Mahoney also anchored the Wildcats’ winning 200 medley and 400 medley relays. She won the 100 free in 51.80.
