Reported by Hannah Hecht.
2017 WOMEN’S NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, March 15 – Saturday, March 18
- IUPUI Natatorium – Indianapolis, IN
- Prelims 10AM/Finals 6PM (Eastern Time)
- Defending Champion: Georgia (results)
- Championship Central
- Psych Sheet
- Event Previews
- Live Stream: Wednesday/Thursday Prelims & Finals, Friday/Saturday Prelims / Friday/Saturday finals on ESPN3
- Live Results
The Stanford Cardinal fulfilled all expectations at the 2017 Women’s NCAA DI Championships tonight, winning the team title by 160.5 points. They took the title with 526.5 points to second-place Cal’s 366 points. With that result, the Cardinal redeemed their narrow 19-point loss to the Georgia Bulldogs from last season.
To say that this meet was historic for Stanford would be an understatement. The team, coached by Greg Meehan in his fifth season, came away with six NCAA records, five American records, eight gold medals, one silver medal, and three bronze medals.
Leading the way for the Cardinal this weekend were freshman Katie Ledecky, sophomore Simone Manuel, and sophomore Ella Eastin.
Ledecky picked up three American records (800 free relay, 500 free, 400 free relay), four NCAA records (800 free relay, 500 free, 1650 free, 400 free relay), and five gold medals (800 free relay, 500 free, 1650 free, 200 free). Manuel took three American records (800 free relay, 100 free, 400 free relay), four NCAA records (800 free relay, 50 free, 100 free, 400 free relay), four gold medals (800 free relay, 50 free, 100 free), and two bronze medals (200 free, 200 medley relay). Eastin had one American record (800 free relay), two golds (400 IM, 200 fly) and one silver (200 IM).
The biggest swims of the weekend for Stanford included a record-smashing 6:45.91 800 free relay, an American record 4:24.0 500 free from Ledecky, an NCAA record 21.17 50 free from Manuel, a gold-medal 200 free tie for the 2nd-fastest swim in history from Ledecky, a gold-medal American record 400 IM from Ella Eastin, a gold medal 200 fly from Ella Eastin, the first 100 free swim under 46 in history from Simone Manuel, an NCAA meet record 1650 free from Katie Ledecky, and an American record 3:07.61 400 free relay.
The full team roster for the 2016-2017 Stanford national champions is below:
- Bridget Boushka, senior
- Hannah Boyd, freshman
- Brickelle Bro, sophomore
- Megan Byrnes, freshman
- Kassidy Cook, diving
- Katie Drabot, freshman
- Ella Eastin, sophomore
- Lindsey Engel, junior
- Haley Farnsworth, freshman
- Sammy Gallagher, junior
- Tara Halsted, senior
- Ally Howe, junior
- Janet Hu, junior
- Katie Ledecky, freshman
- Gracia Leydon Mahoney, junior
- Simone Manuel, junior
- Alexandra Meyers, junior
- Lia Neal, senior
- Heidi Poppe, junior
- Nicole Stafford, senior
- Brooke Stenstrom, freshman
- Leah Stevens, sophomore
- Allie Szekely, freshman
- Erin Voss, freshman
- Kim Williams, sophomore
This is Stanford’s ninth team win in history, coming a full 21 years after their previous national title. The last time the Cardinal won the team trophy was in 1996, led by individual titles from Jessica Tong and Claudia Franco.
With this win, Stanford extends their lead as the winningest team in history with 9 NCAA title wins added to 1 in the AIAW (an NCAA predecessor for women’s athletics). Texas and Georgia have seven team titles apiece, and Auburn has five. Here are all the times Stanford has won the team title:
- 1983 (George Haines): 505 points
- 1989 (Richard Quick): 610.5 points
- 1992 (Richard Quick): 735.5 points
- 1993 (Richard Quick): 649.5 points
- 1994 (Richard Quick): 512 points
- 1995 (Richard Quick): 497.5 points
- 1996 (Richard Quick): 478 points
- 1998 (Richard Quick: 422 points
- 2017 (Greg Meehan): 526.5 points
You can see this weekend’s final team scores below:
Combined Team Scores - Through Event 21 1. Stanford 526.5 2. California 366 3. Texas A&M 292.5 4. Georgia 252.5 5. Texas 252 6. Louisville 194.5 7. NC State 194 8. Indiana 185 9. Southern Cali 176 10. Minnesota 168 11. Michigan 159 12. Virginia 149 13. Missouri 135 14. Kentucky 106 15. Wisconsin 98 16. Arizona 89.5 17. UNC 73 18. Auburn 55 19. Ohio St 52 20. UCLA 48 21. Northwestern 40 22. Tennessee 35 23. Purdue 33 24. Umbc (W) 30 25. Miami (Oh) 29 26. Iowa 26 27. Nevada 25 28. Florida St 24 29. Arizona St 22 30. Denver 20 31. Virginia Tech 18 32. Florida Int'l 16 33. Nebraska 15 34. Lsu 14 35. Cincinnati 12 36. Boise St 10 36. Penn St 10 38. South Carolina 8 39. Miami (Fl) 5 39. Air Force (W) 5 41. Pittsburgh 4 41. Florida Gulf 4 43. Alabama 3.5 44. Notre Dame 2 44. San Diego State University 2 44. Massachusetts 2 47. Duke 1 47. Drexel 1 47. Rutgers 1