Stanford Domination a Broken Record About Broken Records

Stanford's Simone Manuel. Photo Courtesy: Stanford Athletics

By Dan D’Addona.

It is already sounding like a broken record. But it is a record that everyone wants to hear.

That is because it is a broken record about broken records.

Katie Ledecky‘s assault on the NCAA record books had already begun before she began competition at this weekend’s Ohio State Invitational. But in Columbus, Ohio, the Olympic champion took the domination to another level. She broke three NCAA records and two American records to lead the Stanford Cardinal to the team title at the OSU invite.

Stanford scored 1,080 points to dominate the meet. Kentucky finished second (615), followed by Ohio State (609), Yale (385), Iowa (375), Pitt (342), Utah (279), Penn State (198.5), Washington State (147.5) and Kenyon (15).

The domination began on her first swim of the meet.

On Friday morning, Ledecky finished the 500-yard freestyle with an NCAA record time of 4:27.54. That record stood for a few hours until she broke her own American record in the event with a finish of 4:26.46 in the finals.

On Sunday, Ledecky broke the NCAA record in the 1,650 free by 21 seconds and her American record by 10 seconds. In that same race, her 1,000 split time of 9:08.99 topped the NCAA mark she had set in the 1,000 free at Avery Aquatic Center on Nov. 12. Ledecky’s time was 15:03.92 — more than a minute faster than second place.

More than a minute.

The scariest thing for the rest of the NCAA field is Ledecky isn’t the only Stanford swimmer dominating.

Ella Eastin looks strong. Simone Manuel looks stronger. They both beat Ledecky in a race this weekend, which not many people will do this season. Janet Hu and Ally Howe won backstroke events and have been top performers all season. Lia Neal, Allie Szekely, Lindsey Engel, Kassidy Cook, Heidi Poppe, Kim Williams, Katie Drabot, Nicole Stafford … the list goes on.

This is swimming’s juggernaut and it is amazing to see just how stacked this team is.

Eastin swept the individual medleys with a pair of meet records, and added another victory in the 200 butterfly. She set the meet record in the 200 IM at 1:54.06 on Friday, and followed with a winning time of 4:00.36 in the 400 IM on Saturday. She edged Ledecky in the 400 by 31-hundredth of a second as both swimmers earned A qualifying times for the NCAA Championships. Szekely was third in the event with a B standard qualifier of 4:05.63. In the 200 fly, Eastin won with a time of 1:52.62, while Engel was third at 1:57.89.

Hu followed with a meet record and A qualifying time in the 100 butterfly (51.05), while Engel was third at 52.93. Hu was edged by Howe in the 100 backstroke as the duo finished with A qualifying times, Howe in 50.91 and Hu in 51.01. Hu won the 200 backstroke (1:50.69).

The Cardinal claimed the top five spots in the preliminaries and finals of the 200 free. Manuel (1:41.90), Ledecky (1:42.16), Drabot (1:44.93), Lia Neal (1:45.16) and Nicole Stafford (1:45.26) were the first to finish among the 10 swimmers in the A final and 94 swimmers overall. Meanwhile, Manuel (47.27), Neal (47.70) and Drabot (49.03) were first, second and fourth in the 100 free.

Stanford’s divers were led by returning Olympian Cook, who was the runner-up on the 1-meter with a score of 283.90, and freshman Haley Farnsworth was third (293.70) on 3-meter.

Stanford also swept the relays. Neal, Manuel, Hu and Howe set a meet record in the 200 free relay (1:27.72), while Howe, Williams, Hu and Manuel were tops in the 400 medley relay (3:29.63) on Friday. The following night, Howe, Poppe, Hu and Manuel won the 200 medley relay (1:36.53) and the foursome of Ledecky, Drabot, Manuel and Eastin set pool and meet records in the 800 free relay (6:55.54). In the final event of the meet, Hu, Ledecky, Manuel and Neal won the 400 free relay in 3:12.55.

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Philip Otto

7 years ago

Go Stanford!