STANFORD VS. USC
- Results
- Saturday, January 28th
- Hosted by Stanford
- 25 yards
- Dual meet format
FINAL TEAM SCORES
- STANFORD- 202
- USC- 98
The Stanford Cardinal put up some blistering times in their dual meet victory over USC on Saturday, including Simone Manuel‘s 1:42.72 in the 200 free. That time broke teammate Katie Ledecky‘s former Pool Record of 1:43.48 that she had set just a day before in their meet against UCLA. It was also within tenths of her season best 1:41.90 from the 2016 Ohio State Invitational.
Ledecky wasn’t swimming alongside her in the 200 free, but she did swim the 1000 free just one event earlier. She put on her usual display of dominance in that race with a winning time of 9:12.32. She also won the 500 free in 4:34.98 ahead of fellow Cardinal freshman Katie Drabot (4:47.00).
Also setting a Pool Record individually was Stanford’s Janet Hu. Her 51.91 in the 100 back eclipsed her own former record of 51.95. Hu then went on the win the 100 fly in 52.95. At the end of the meet, Hu (49.72) joined up with Manuel, Ledecky (49.32), and Neal (48.63) for a new Pool Record of 3:15.05 in the 400 free relay. Manuel rocketed to a 47.38 flat start time as the team’s leadoff, setting another Avery Aquatics Center record.
PRESS RELEASE – STANFORD
STANFORD, Calif. – Behind a trio of pool records, No. 2 Stanford closed out its home schedule with an impressive 202-98 victory over No. 4 USC on Saturday afternoon in front of another strong crowd at Avery Aquatic Center.
Stanford (7-0, 6-0 Pac-12) remained unbeaten in seven duals this year and has won its last 14 overall dating back to 2014. The Cardinal has also prevailed in 11 consecutive home duals.
Saturday’s competition also represented the final home meet for seniors Bridget Boushka, Tara Halsted, Lia Neal and Nicole Stafford. During their time on The Farm, Stanford has never finished worse than third at the NCAA Championships with runner-up finishes in 2014 and 2016.
Fitting Ending
Neal capped her career on The Farm with a pool record in the 400-yard freestyle relay. The two-time Olympian touched the Avery wall for the final time and stopped the clock at 3:15.05 — it was a half-second faster than the nine-year-old facility record set by Dwelley, Breeden, Smith and Smit. Fellow Olympians Simone Manuel and Katie Ledecky took the first two legs and Janet Hu covered the third 100. Stanford’s other seniors, Stafford and Halsted, also served as anchors in the final event.
More Pool Records
To the delight of the large crowd, Stanford set two other pool records on the sunny January afternoon. Manuel topped the mark set just one day earlier by Ledecky in the 200 free. Manuel hit the wall at 1:42.72. Neal was second at 1:44.59. In the next event, it was Hu’s turn. She topped her own record in the 100 backstroke by .04 with a first-place finish of 51.91.
Distance Stars
Ledecky won both distance free events to remain undefeated in those events as a collegian. She was tops by more than 30 seconds in the 1,000 free at 9:12.32 and bested the field by 12 seconds in the 500 free at 4:34.98. Stanford went 1-2-3 in both events as freshman Megan Byrnes was second (9:48.68) and sophomore Leah Stevens was third (9:57.14) in the 1000, while freshman Katie Drabot (4:47.00) was the runner-up and Byrnes was third (4:49.32) in the 500.
Diving Stars
Kassidy Cook earned the victory on the 1-meter with a score of 326.33. It marked the second straight weekend sweep in that event for Cook.
More Winners
Manuel and Neal were also tops in the 50 and 100 freestyles, respectively. Manuel (22.14) out-touched Neal (22.53) in the 50, but Neal was first to the wall in the 100 at 48.18. Hu was also victorious in the 100 fly (52.05), while freshman Erin Voss edged out Ally Howe by five-hundreths of a second in the 200 backstroke with a time of 1:55.42. Sophomore Ella Eastin won at the wall in the 200 butterfly (1:55.35) and was tops in the 200 individual medley (1:58.11) ahead of freshman Allie Szekely (1:59.78). In addition, the winning 200 medley relay (1:38.52) featured Ally Howe, Heidi Poppe, Hu and Manuel.
WHAT’S AHEAD
Next up for Stanford is a Feb. 11 dual against California in Berkeley. The meet can be seen on the Pac-12 Network at noon
SOCIAL SCENE:
Stanford women’s swimming and diving can be found on instagram, twitter and snapchat at StanfordWSwim.
PRESS RELEASE – USC
Sophomore Riley Scott swept the 100y and 200y breaststroke while sophomore Maddie Witt won the 3-meter springboard to highlight the No. 4 USC women’s swimming and diving team’s efforts in a 202-98 loss at No. 1 Stanford on Saturday (Jan. 28).
USC fell to 6-2, 5-2. Stanford improved to 7-0, 6-0.
Scott, who also swept the breaststroke on Friday at Cal, first won the 100y breast with a 1:01.52 with senior Riley Hayward fourth (1:02.96). Scott followed it up with a victory in the 200y breast in 2:10.61 while sophomore Kirsten Vose took third (2:14.72).
Junior Maddie Witt claimed the 3-meter with 323.78, edging freshman teammate Naomi Gowlett (321.45) while freshman Carly Souza was fifth (287.03).
USC finished second in the 200y medley relay to open the meet as sophomores Hanni Leach and Scott, freshman Louise Hansson and senior Anika Apostalon finished in 1:40.34 to Stanford’s 1:38.52.
Sophomore Allie Wooden led USC in the 1000y free with a fourth in 9:59.46, just under her third-place swim at Cal yesterday. Hansson’s third topped Troy in 200y free (1:44.91) while junior Hannah Weiss was also third in the 100y back (53.43).
Sophomore Maddie Wright just missed a win in the 200y fly, coming back on Stanford’s Ella Eastin and almost catching the Stanford All-American at the wall, taking second in 1:55.43, 0.08 out of first.
Apostalon took third in 50y free (20.77) headed into the first diving break. Coming out of the break, Hansson (49.17) and Apostalon (49.38) went 2-3 in the 100y free back of Lia Neal’s 48.81.
Stanford, which got two wins from freshman Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky, pulled away with 1-2-3 sweeps in the 200y back, 500y free and 200y IM. Freshman Catherine Sanchez posted a third in the 100y fly (54.65) while Gowlett was second on 1-meter (290.33).
USC closed the meet with a second in the 400y free relay in 3:21.25.
USC finishes the regular season by hosting UCLA on Feb. 10 at noon on senior day.
The conversion utility provided by this site converts Pellegrini’s unreachable by far LCM world record into 1:39.9 SCY. This utility is definitely mistaken in case of Missy Franklin, but it worked surprisingly accurate for Katie Ledecky when she swam both LCM and SCY in the same season. I would be surprised to see Katie under 1:40 in about two months. And if it happens I would expect something really spectacular in Budapest.
Simone Manuel on the other hand is much closer to Franklin by her style. To see her at 1:40 will be much less surprising but don’t expect from her a world class time at LCM because of that. The 200SCY is still 20 meters shorter than 200… Read more »
I feel like if Manuel continues to drop big times in the 200 scy it will help improve her base for the LC equivalent. Hopefully she will make the 4 x 200 relay this summer.
Manuel’s 1:42.7 fastest all- time in a dual- meet, collegiate or otherwise.
Old fastest: 1:42.93 by Muchigan’s Siobhan Haughey from USA College Challenge at Indy in October.
Old fastest collegiate dual- meet record was Ledecky’s 1:43.48 vs. UCLA a day earlier. Manuel’s tine is also an Avery Aquatics Complex record.
Could Franklin’s American/ NCAA record if 1:39-plus be in danger?
Can Manuel become first woman to sweep 50-109-200 frees @ NCAAs?
Stay tuned!
I heard only one swimmer ever won 50-100-200 free at NCAA: Matt Biondi
If Manuel won the 200 free, pretty sure she will lose either 50 or 100 free.
GII,
Gustavo Borges(Michigan) did the same in 1995.But it’s a rare deed.
Kara Lynn Joyce did this already. As pumped as I am for the 200 free, the 100 free should be just as thrilling. Of course Manuel and Weitzeil along with Smoliga, Comerford, and Lia Neal in her last individual collegiate race. I have no idea who to choose for this race.
Ledecky may swim the 400 IM. She does have the second fastest time in the nation in two events. She could lead off the 800 free relay. Ella Easton vs Katie Ledecky in the 400 IM would also be a great race.
True story. Plus on top of Manuel, Stanford already has Neal and potentially Drabot finaling in that event.
Anyone know why they didn’t Exhibition any events? 202-98 is a blowout score that you don’t usually see in the weirdly PC world of college dual meets. Is there some sort of beef between Meehen and Salo after they rested to beat us a couple of years ago, and Meehen wanted to prove a point?
No point to prove. I think scoring was due to fact that meet was being broadcast live, and they did not want to complicate things for the TV announcers or viewers. Not sure what you mean “rested to beat us” – USC has never defeated Stanford in a dual meet in the 5 seasons Meehan has been coach. Stanford’s all time dual meet record v USC now 35-2.
You’re right. I was misremembering from last year when USC swam pretty close to their end of season times and upset Cal and came within a few points of beating Stanford.
Since the topic came up, here is Salo quote from Saturday:
“To be honest, we were dreading this on our calendar,” USC coach Dave Salo said. “They should win the NCAAs. They should have won it last year. They had a bad relay.”
http://www.sfgate.com/collegesports/article/Freshman-Ledecky-and-her-Stanford-mates-bury-USC-10891692.php
The meet was televised on the PAC 12 Network and they have a rule of no exhibition events
Not sure, but I doubt it. I heard something last year about a weird rule that you can’t exhibition when a meet is covered live on Pac 12 TV.
Ledecky 1:37.6 at NCAA’s
Guess you didn’t watch the meet. Considering how fast her teammates swam, her performances were average.
It would be interesting to check if it were any physiological changes to the systems of 20 years old Ledecky, if training for SC only affected her technique, if the changes of life style changed her mindset. Ledecky’s in season times never served good help when predicting her tapered times. Look at her 2016 times @100: 53.7 (January, rested) – 53.99(OT, untapered, but strongly focusing to be on relay) – 52.6 relay split (OG, fully tapered/rested). Plus she ambitiously wants (I think) to have this 200 record in her name. She definitely tried to do so with Junior record when concluding HS swimming career. It didn’t happen then (1:41).
Your observations being accurate don’t actually mean much. Her in-season times have never served good help in predicting her results at major meets. That’s why Ledecky’s records even being expected have always impressed by the magnitude of improvement compare to the season average times.
compare her 100fr split in the relay to Manuel. Its pretty obvious she doesn’t have that kind of speed in short course.
It’s an odd feeling when you find yourself “disappointed” by Katie Ledecky swims, when she is basically swimming faster than any collegian swimmer in the USA at this point in the season.
Manuel’s 200 looks better than ever. She will need to use Missy’s tactic– take it out like a madwoman and hang on. I wonder how this 200 focus (and doing 500s) will affect her 50. The women’s 50 free will be the most competitive event at NCAAs, women or men. If Weitzeil hits her taper, it’s gonna be trouble! Smoliga is no joke and looked very strong in her mid-season rest meet. Osman and Li* are always dangerous.
Meehen is a big picture coach. Pretty sure he follows a Quadrennial approach to swimming, so even though Manuel will be swimming her usual sprint event lineup, she is probably doing a bit more yardage in year 1, leading up to 2020.
Great point, CraigH. Meehan should have been up for Coach of the Year tbh. He has been excellent with Manuel and co.