PAC-12 play was opened up in Northern California tonight, with the women of Stanford topping the women of Washington State, 147-104.
Senior Felicia Lee and junior Maddy Schaefer each won two events to help the Stanford women take the meet. The Cardinal had control of the meet from the start. They rode that momentum to end, where the final four swimming events were scored as exhibitions.
Lee pulled out wins in the 200 free (1:49.82) and the 50 free (23.55), while Schaefer earned first in the 100 back (55.13) and 100 free (50.33).
The 200 medley relay got it all kicked off for the Cardinal, with junior Annemarie Thayer (25.99), junior Katie Olsen (29.01), Lee (24.56) and Schaefer (22.27) finished at 1:41.83. The last three splits on that relays are pretty respectable for early October.
Avery Aquatics Center, Palo Alto, California
Five other Cardinal contributed victories this afternoon at Avery. Senior Andie Taylor cruised to a win in the 1,000 free in 9:57.89 – negative splitting her race, 5:00/4:57.
Sophomore Sarah Hasse had the 100 breaststroke (1:03.97), senior Kirstie Chen at 2:03.62 in the 200 butterfly, a sub-2:00 already 200 backstroke (1:59.60) from senior Maya DiRado, and a 2:17.56 200 breaststroke from Olsen rounded out the five individuals with victories.
Olympian and freshman Lia Neal swim more traditional events for herself, with a trio of second place finishes in the 50, 100 & 200 freestyles – 23.79, 50.55, 1:51.66.
Washington won the last four events of the meet, totaling three individual and one relay. Stanford was swimming as exhibition by this point in the meet.
Cougar freshman Elise Locke led the way with her first-place finish in the 500 free (5:05.48). Heather Morlan (SR.), Emma Ronczkowski (FR.), and Haley Anderson (JR.) finished second, third, and fourth, respectively in the same event.
The other two Cougar event victories were from Emma Johansson (SR.) and Presley Wetterstrom (SO.). Johansson finished the 100 fly at 56.67. Wetterstrom placed first in the 400 IM with a time of 4:41.99.
The Washington State 400 FR-R closed off the meet tonight with Johansson, Haley Rose Love (FR.), Alison Mand (JR.), and Nicole Proulx (JR.) notched a time of 3:31.53.
The Cougars will compete again in the Bay Area Friday, taking on the Cal Bears.
Stanford will return to the pool October 25th in Corvallis, Oregon to take on Oregon State.
for the record, there were “just slightly” fewer fans in the stands than shown in the accompanying photo