NCAA Div. I Women: Stanford Disposes of USC

By Bill Bell

STANFORD, Calif., Jan. 27. NUMBER 4-ranked
Stanford (3-1, 3-1 Pac-10) splashed past No.8 USC (3-3, 1-3 Pac-10), 167-131, in a conference women's swimming and diving dual meet on Saturday at the Avery Aquatics Center in Palo Alto. Coach Richard Quick's Cardinal won 11 of the 16 events as Misty Hyman, Tara Kirk, Jessica Foschi and Siobhan Cropper raced to a pair of individual events each.

Hyman, Sydney Olympic gold medalist in the 200 fly and NCAA 200 back champ as a freshman in 1998 (pr 1:53.12, third-quickest performance ever) — posted NCAA "A" cuts in both the 100 backstroke (54.74) and 200 backstroke (1:58.01).

Kirk set an Avery Competition Pool record with her NCAA "A" cut of 1:01.30 in the 100 breaststroke.
Kirk's career-best century mark is 1:00.54 and her best as a Cardinal is 1:00.65 from last week's meet with Arizona. The national leader is another freshman, Penn State rookie Kristen Woodring, whose pr 1:00.48 against Purdue last November tops the rankings.

When this duo tangles on Long Island at the Division I Championships in March at the Goodwill Games Pool will the American-NCAA record of 59.05 by Georgia's Kristy Kowal tumble beneath the waves? Kowal set her mark as a sophomore and then went 59.25 as a junior the following season — history's two-quickest 100's.
Quick says, "I'm not making any predictions."

Kirk also won the 200 breaststroke (2:14.91).Her pr here (career and season) is 2:11.70 from the Arizona dual in the desert a week ago. That time ranks Kirk No. 2 nationally behind Arizona's Amanda Beard's
sizzling 2:11.02.

Foschi, defending Pac-10 500 free champ, won here in 4:51.23 and also won the 1650 freestyle (16:28.52). Foschi ranks second nationally in the 500 to Michigan freshman Samantha Arsenault, who was also a Sydney gold medalist in the 800 free relay.

The Cards' Siobhan Cropper, a Trinidadian Olympian, won the 50 freestyle (23.99) and 100 free (51.97).

Other Cardinal individual winners were Lauren Thies in the 200 freestyle (1:49.62) and Shelly Ripple in the 100 butterfly (55.77). Stanford also won the 400 medley relay with Megan Baumgartner, Kirk, Hyman and Cropper (3:43.08).

USC was led by diver Nicci Fusaro, winner of both the one-meter (186.25) and three-meter (206.15) competitions. Michala Kwasny's victory in the 200 butterfly (2:00.02) and Corrie Murphy's in the 400 individual medley were the sole individual swim wins for USC. The Women of Troy did win the 400 freestyle relay with the team of Kwasny, Kristin MacGregor, Jana Krohn and Jennifer Parmenter.

Stanford next competes in a triangular meet at Texas (also versus SMU) next Friday-Saturday, February 2-3. SC's final dual meet of the season will be Feb. 3 at the Trojans' home pool against crosstown rival UCLA, which lost to Cal Saturdy in Berkeley.

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