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2019 W. NCAAs: Watch Stanford’s Pool Record 800 Free Relay – Plus Forde’s Bonus 50

2019 WOMEN’S Division I NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS

The Stanford Cardinal picked up their first event win of the 2019 Women’s Division I NCAA Championships Wednesday night, throwing down a new pool record in 6:47.22.

Katie Drabot led off in 1:43.99, followed by Ella Eastin with a stellar 1:41.03, then Taylor Ruck – in her first NCAA Championship swim – broke the race open in a blazing fast 1:39.83, and Brooke Forde anchored in 1:42.37.

However, Forde’s time was “to the foot,” as she accidentally tacked an extra 50 onto the end of her swim. Luckily, she was anchoring and Stanford had a multi-second lead, so it didn’t affect the race outcome. Impressively, however, Forde’s best time in a (flat start) 200 freestyle is 1:44.68, and her relay split last year was 1:42.94. Even with the relay start, the fact that she was over two seconds under her best time – to the foot – bodes well for her performance this week. Her splits were 24.06/25.35/25.94/27.02/27.58 (the final one being from our watch).

“I’d like to say it was a victory lap,” Forde said in a post-race interview.

The team laughed it off right away – we’ve all been there, or at least been nervous about being there.

Watch the relay, plus the bonus 50, below:

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CAFan
5 years ago

Hilarious photo of the reaction to Forde from the Stanford sideline:

https://twitter.com/stanfordwswim/status/1108767927740911616

leo
5 years ago

is that not a DQ?

Eddie Rowe
Reply to  leo
5 years ago

The only thing you could call her on would be delay of meet, and since it was the final heat, that’s not going to happen.

beachmouse
Reply to  leo
5 years ago

IIRC, freestyle doesn’t specify a body part that has to hit the wall first, unlike the other strokes.

Chooch
5 years ago

WR 250 split?

PKWater
5 years ago

I am always blown away at how tall ruck is. That picture makes her look like a senior group swimmer in a relay with age groupers.
I am excited to see her that fast, NCAAs are always so exciting

toastedcoconut
5 years ago

Will you guys be recording all of the finals race videos this week?

Meeeeeee
5 years ago

Uh oh for Tennessee

googoodoll
Reply to  Meeeeeee
5 years ago

Why dump on Tennessee? Tennessee is really good and almost scored. It is an honor just to compete at NCAAs.

Horninco
Reply to  Meeeeeee
5 years ago

Clearly the stress of two big emotional meets in a 4 week span was detrimental to the Lady Vols. Can’t expect them to get emotionally ready for two big meets so close together.

Big Chedder
5 years ago

Victory Lap!

AvidSwimFan
5 years ago

Ruck looks like she’s in amazing form here. I’m excited for this week.

NOFLYKICK
Reply to  AvidSwimFan
5 years ago

Yea, it looks like she brought her “A” game. If so, it should be fun to watch.

About Torrey Hart

Torrey Hart

Torrey is from Oakland, CA, and majored in media studies and American studies at Claremont McKenna College, where she swam distance freestyle for the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps team. Outside of SwimSwam, she has bylines at Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, SB Nation, and The Student Life newspaper.

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