Conference Swimmer of the Week Awards
Men- Kevin Munsch (Arizona) – Munsch won the 200 IM against Texas, and placed second in both breaststrokes in what was an otherwise lackluster performance for Arizona.
Women- Haley Anderson (USC)– Despite her team’s losing effort, Anderson swept the distance freestyles against very tough competition. This includes posting the nation’s top time in the 1000 freestyle.
#3 USC Women Fall to #1 Stanford/#4 Cal
USC was the hottest team in the country headed into holiday training. After their performance at US Short Course Nationals in December, where Katinka Hosszu set meet records among a slew of impressive swims, it seemed as though the Trojans might be unstoppable as they hurtled towards March.
This was until they hit a roadblock on Interstate 5 between their home in Los Angeles and the Bay Area. The USC women dropped both of their dual meets 182-118 against #4 Cal on Friday and against the top-ranked team in the country Stanford 161.5-136.5 on Saturday.
It’s been hard to get a good grasp on what Cal has this season beyond their top three-or-four, so this result is a bit of a surprising revelation, and thrusts them back into the National Championship conversation. In their Friday match-up with USC, the best race of the meet came late in the 100 fly. Amanda Sims of Cal and Lyndsay DePaul of USC will be among a small-handful of championship contenders in this event at NCAA’s. This was the first of at least three battles between the two in the coming weeks, and Sims took the early edge in round-1. The two battled stroke-for-stroke the whole race, and Simms began to fade ever-so-slightly inside the flags, but hung on for the win in 52.92. DePaul was second in 52.96.
It will be interesting to see how this mental edge plays in Sims’ favor for the rest of the season (though DePaul has by-far the faster time of the season so far). This is the type of racing that can really draw the public into swimming. DePaul bounced back in the 200 distance to easily knock Sims off in 1:55.92.
Other great swims for Cal include a 1:58.97 in the 200 IM from Caitlin Leverenz, who also doubled up with a 2:10.89 in the 200 breaststroke, and a 22.48 from Liv Jensen in the 50 free.
Despite the disappointing results, all was not bad for USC. Distance star Hayley Anderson showed herself to be the class of both meets in the distance races by taking all four of her individual races on the weekend, with double victories in both the 500 and 1000. On Friday against Cal, she won the 1000 easily in 9:50, and the 500 in a nail-biter against Cal’s Katie Kastes in 4:50. On Saturday, however, she showed her true form against Stanford.
Stanford’s distance crew of Andie Taylor and Kelsey Ditto, among others, are at a different level than what Anderson faced the day before, and she accordingly stepped up her game. In the 1000 free, freshman Andie Taylor hung with her through about 800 yards, but then Anderson pulled away to win in 9:40.26. Taylor was second in 9:42.24, and Ditto was not far behind in 9:45.29 also. This is a battle that we will see again in the slightly longer mile, where those swimmer hold the top three times in the nation this year (Ditto’s best of 9:43 was done in November, Anderson and Taylor’s marks from this meet are numbers one and two).
In the 500, Ditto was Anderson’s main opponent. Anderson had the race in hand throughout most of the race, until the final 100 yards. The Stanford swimmer closed hard (at more than a second faster than Anderson over the last 100), but was unable to make up the last 12 inches. Anderson’s final time was 4:45.81, and Ditto’s was 4:46.19.
With the way Anderson is swimming this year, it might be up to her sister Alyssa at Arizona to take her down in either event.
Freshman Felicia Lee stepped up big for Stanford to win the 200 fly in 1:59.11. She just outtouched another young 200 fly stud in the making, USC’s Yumi So, who touched in 1:59.13.
In relay action, Cal’s 200 free relays were mighty impressive. They swam with evenly-matched split squads, and took first and second in 1:31.6 and 1:32.4. This includes a total of five splits in the 22-second range. The best was a 22.35 from Jensen. USC’s lone Achilles’ heal this season, sprint freestyle depth, showed here with a third-place time of 1:33.16. This is not-withstanding a great 23.00 flat-start from freshman Kasey Carlson.
On Saturday, Stanford had a fantastic 400 free relay time of 3:16.95. This included a great 48.95 anchor from senior Kate Dwelley.
These two losses were USC’s first of the season, and the victories continued undefeated regular seasons for both Cal and Stanford. Those two programs will show down in Berkeley in a huge rivalry meet for the Pac-10 regular season crown on February 12th. The Pac-10 Championships come relatively late in the schedule, and aren’t until the end of February.
Not to be overlooked, this completed an undefeated home-meet career for Stanford seniors Kate Dwelley, Meg Hostage, Liz Smith, Kerry Kraemer, and Kelsey Ditto. In four seasons, they are 22-0 at home, and 35-1 overall. Their last loss for the #1 Cardinal came against current #2 Georgia in Athens in 2007. In an amusing twist, that loss came at the hands of a team that has over a 70-meet home winning streak.
Full Results: USC at Cal | USC at Stanford
Other Pac-10 News
The #6 Texas women bounced back with a win over #7 Arizona by a score of 189-156 in a two-day dual, after several Texas exhibition swims. Texas’ Karlee Bispo had a great winning 100-free time of 49.24, and Arizona’s deadly 200-medley won in 1:41.00….
The dual between #4 Texas and #6 Arizona lost some of it’s luster, as they were the top-two ranked teams in the country prior to the latest CSCAA poll release. There was still tons of great swimming, not the least of which was National HS record holder Cole Cragin’s easy-upset of NCAA-favorite Cory Chitwood in the 100 back. Cragin touched in 48.18, while Chitwood finished in 48.69. The final score in the meet was 186.5-155.5 in favor of the Longhorns…
In the other half of the Northern swing, #22 UCLA dropped against both Cal and Stanford. The score on Friday in Palo Alto was 169-131, and in Berkeley on Saturday the final marks were 168.5-131.5. Three season-long undefeated streaks went down for the Bruins, as Brittany Beauchan finished second against Cal in the 200 breaststroke, and Yasi Jahanshahi finished second in both butterflys. Sam Vanden Berge won the 100 free both days with a best time of 9:59.38 against Cal…
Oregon State split over the weekend. On Friday night, which served as their senior recognition, they lost to Washington State 156-106. On Saturday, they beat Idaho 115.5-93.5. Team-leader Jenni Dole had some great backstroke swims, with a best mark of 56.74 in the 100 backstroke.
after De Paul’s performance (victory) at US nationals in the 100 fly and given her strength for 200 fly all the way up to 400 IM, plus a talent for 50 free (22.8), i think it is clear she is not going to look at a dual meet as a defining moment in what kind of results she can expect this season or in the final haul to trials, especially in her favorite event. USC is making rapid improvement, very impressive.