STANFORD VS. SOUTHERN CAL
- Results
- Hosted by USC
- Saturday, January 27th
- 25 Yards
- Dual Meet Format
FINAL TEAM SCORES:
- STANFORD: 223
- USC: 77
Distance ace Katie Ledecky swept her individual events as the Cardinal defeated Pac-12 rival USC on Saturday. Ledecky was pool lengths ahead of the field in the 1000 free, dominating in 9:15.96. Notably, freshman teammate Brooke Forde set a new best time as she touched in 9:46.23 for 2nd place. Ledecky returned to the pool in the next event for the 200 free. Though she trailed USC’s Louise Hansson (1:46.21) through the front half, Ledecky powered through in the final 100 yards to build a 3-second lead, winning in 1:43.24. Finally, Ledecky completed the distancne sweep with a 4:36.61 in the 500 free.
Ledecky’s time in the 200 free is the 2nd fastest she’s ever been in a dual meet. Last season against Cal in February, she put up a dual meet best of 1:43.09. That time was also done immediately after the 1000 free. However, she was faster in today’s 1000 free ahead of the 200 free, as she posted a 9:20.41 in that 2017 dual meet against Cal compared to her 9:15.96 today.
A handful of women pulled off winning doubles for the Cardinal. American Record holder Ella Eastin raced to a dominant 1:54.59 victory in the 200 fly. She also won the 200 IM, turning in a 1:56.26 ahead of Forde (1:58.08). Teammate Grace Zhao picked up a stroke sweep, running down USC’s Riley Scott (1:00.80) to take a narrow win with a 1:00.72 in the 100 breast and topping the 200 breast in 2:09.88. Janet Hu took on the 100 fly (52.81)/100 back (52.24) combo, earning victories in both events.
PRESS RELEASE – STANFORD:
LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Four Cardinal won multiple events, including three victories from sophomore Katie Ledecky, and No. 3 Stanford women’s swimming and diving topped USC, 223-77, on Saturday.
“I’m really proud of the team’s performance at the end of back-to-back weekends of racing,” said Paul A. Violich Director of Women’s Swimming Greg Meehan. “This team takes a lot of pride in how they compete from start-to-finish, and it says a lot about our culture.
“Katie Ledecky‘s double to start the meet was really impressive, Grace Zhao is continuing to blossom, and our divers were great on the boards again.”
Ledecky’s early double came in back-to-back events in the 1,000 and 200-yard freestyles, respectively. The Bethesda, Maryland, native won the longest distance race of the day by more than 30 seconds. Stanford took the top four spots, led by Ledecky’s finish of 9:15.96, and followed by freshman Brooke Forde‘s career-best of 9:45.23.
Ledecky went right back in the water and won the 200 – by nearly full three seconds. Just after the 1,000, she had an impressive sprint of 1:43.24. Later in the meet, she swam another 500 yards in 4:36.61 to claim her third victory of the afternoon. Stanford once again had the top four times in the event as sophomore Megan Byrnes (4:52.12), junior Leah Stevens (4:53.38) and freshman Katie Glavinovich (4:54.68) were the next to touch.
Zhao swept the breaststroke with season-best performances in both races. The freshman stopped the clock at 1:00.72 in the 100, and followed that with a finish of 2:09.88 in the 200. It marked her second sweep of the breaststrokes in the last two weekends.
Junior Ella Eastin and senior Janet Hu also won a pair of events to lead Stanford to its 22nd consecutive dual meet victory. Eastin won decisively in the 200 butterfly (1:54.59), and topped a trio of teammates in the 200 individual medley (1:56.26). Hu won the 100 fly (52.81), and once again swam side-by-side to with senior Ally Howe in the 100 back – Hu (52.24) edged Howe (52.60).
The Cardinal also swept the diving events. Freshman Abby Gardner garnered her first career win with a score of 291.30 on the 1-meter, and sophomore Haley Farnsworth had the top score on the 3-meter with a career-best 326.85. Farnsworth was also the narrow runner-up to Gardner on the 1-meter (290.63).
Senior Simone Manuel won the 100 free at 48.13, and sophomore Erin Voss was tops in the 200 back (1:54.31).
Once again, Stanford won both relays. Howe, Zhao, Hu and Manuel sped to a finish of 1:3779 in the 200 medley relay, and the foursome of Hu, Green, Ledecky and Manuel won the 400 free relay at 3:15.71.
Stanford returns home for Senior Day on Feb. 10 against Cal. The meet starts at noon, and the Cardinal will be accepting donations at the door for Stanford University’s Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital.
PRESS RELEASE – USC:
Freshman Marta Ciesla pulled off another upset in the 50y free to highlight the No. 9 USC women’s swimming and diving team’s 223-77 loss to No. 2 Stanford on Saturday (Jan. 27) at the Uytengsu Aquatics Center.
USC fell to 7-2 overall, 4-2 in the Pac-12. Stanford improved to 7-0, 6-0.
A day after Ciesla defeated Cal Olympian Abbey Weitzeil in the 50y free, the freshman from Boca Raton, Fla., defeated an American Olympian again, knocking off Stanford’s Simone Manuel in the sprint, 22.55 to 22.82.
Junior Riley Scott just missed a first in the 100y breast, touching in 1:00.80 as Stanford’s Grace Zhao beat her to the wall in 1:00.72. Zhao got the better of Scott again in the 200y breast, 2:09.88 to 2:10.51. Freshman Maggie Aroesty was third (2:11.31).
Trojan sophomore Louise Hansson also posted a pair of seconds. She was second in the 200y free in 1:46.21 to Stanford Olympian Katie Ledecky‘s 1:43.24. Hansson then took second in the 100y free in 49.40 to Manuel’s 48.13.
Stanford Olympic great Katie Ledecky won three races overall, taking the 1000y and 500y free in addition to the 200.
The USC women return to action on Feb. 9 at UCLA, looking for their 11th consecutive win over the Bruins.
She can’t help it. The girl can’t help it.
Does anyone know if Manuel is going to swim for Stanford next year?
Katie Ledecky is capable of breaking 15:00 for the 1650 free, which would be historic.
But the event comes at the end of the schedule at the NCAAs. So she doesn’t have the advantage of swimming it feeling “fresh.” She swam her 15:03 at a meet where she didn’t have a lot of other swims (like heats and relays).
Maybe she should do an “exhibition” swim to break the record. She’s always racing the clock anyway.
Totally agree with you. In the year like this one when there are no meets like OG or WC where people are obsessed with medal counting she should taper two or three times per year and swim only one event for the meet. For the record setting purposes only. She always swam 800 at the very end of long intensive and energy consuming meets. Should she swim this distance on the first day of competition without being concerned of keeping some freshness for the following four-five events she would swim under 8:02 in Rio. For sure.
I think we should stop freaking out about a swim made 30 minutes after a huge 1000 or 1650. At worlds, she went 1:54.6 in the semis of the 200 free right after the 1500, but didn’t match it in the final. She’s probably running on adrenaline.
I don’t think it’s anything to freak out about, but it was a good back-to-back double. Also, it’s worth noting that there was very little time between events, not 30 minutes. In a one-day dual meet, the 200 free typically comes immediately after the 1000 free. Since this was a women’s only meet, there wasn’t even a men’s 1000 between her 1000 free and 200 free. It was a very quick turnaround.
The majority of the rest between events was her margin of victory in the 1000
I don’t think your conclusions are accurate. You simplify what’s happened in Budapest. After unusual performance in 200 final she was back to her good form swimming 4×200 relay with her second ever best split. This one day drop in performance and determination between two very good races (double and relay) never was clearly explained/commented neither by Katie nor by her coaching staff.
Your “adrenalin” argument surely doesn’t work in the case of Kazan’s 1500-200 double when she barely went through 200 semi-final swimming 1:56 high.
on the points issue, it’s not like this was Stanford vs Podunk U. USC has all the advantages that Stanford does: world class facility, world class coach, private school, beautiful campus. Some would even say, since it is less rigorous academically than Stanford, they also have an advantage in being able to recruit a wider range of student athletes. Would it have been more sportsmanlike for Stanford to have swum all of their stars in off events so the score was closer? This should be an eye opener for USC to think about what they need to do differently to be more competitive.
I’m not sure that I would say that USC is equal in advantages to Stanford. If my child had offers to USC and Stanford, USC would not even be in the conversation (and I like USC). 2 big things come to mind…one, campus….a block or so off of campus at USC, and you might be taking your life into your own hands, is there even a bad area of Palo Alto? Two, Stanford is less dependent on athletic scholarships than USC. Stanford is essentially free unless your family income is in the mid six figure range or higher. Not sure USC needs to do anything differently. There are only so many swimmers to recruit in this country that are capable… Read more »
The significant disparity between the two programs is not recent news. Stanford women are now 37-2 versus USC in duals, 20-1 in conference titles, and 10-1 in national titles.
these times are insane for a dual meet.
Ledecky would have placed 5th in the 500 (just behind Comerford) and 7th in the 200 with those times at NCAAs last year. Insane.
And first in the 1000, if they’d had one.
Stanford set six Uytengsu Aquatics Center pool records with efforts in 200/500/1000 Free (Ledecky), 100 Free (Manuel), 200IM (Eastin), and 400 Free Relay.
More important that the exhibition swimming, KL with a very impressive “dirty double”…
Ledecky bouncing back; Weitzeil too. As I said to those worried about their form last year; remember the struggles you had during your first year of university/college. These athletes are no different – Some adapt quickly, others take time to settle. I can’t wait to see them both thrive over the course of their college years.
I don’t know much about Janet Hu; But her versatility is quite something – Really caught my eye in reports over the last few months. If she can translate to LCM, I’ll be very excited to see what she can do post-college.
She’s like Cindy Tran a few years back. Absolutely dominating underwaters (one of those rare swimmers who is even faster staying underwater in a 50 Free versus surfacing more quickly). It can be tough for these swimmers to transition to LCM, although I would love to see her take a year to try her luck on the SCM Pro Circuit.
Yes! She would be great at SCM pro circuit and could challenge in all 100s and 50s maybe even IM!
Cindy Tran, Felicia Lee, David Nolan, Austin Staab, Courtney Bartholomew, Janet Hu…
Some people wanna crush until they are 22, and not worry about swimming as a career. If you can get internships over the summer instead of boosting your LCM times, it makes sense.