Pac-12 Saturday Recap: No. 2 Stanford Rolls No. 4 USC; Cal tops UCLA

Stanford's Lia Neal. Photo Courtesy: Annie Grevers

By Dan D’Addona.

The No. 2 Stanford women’s swim team closed out its home schedule with a 202-98 victory over No. 4 USC on Saturday afternoon behind three pool records.

Stanford (7-0, 6-0 Pac-12) remained unbeaten in seven duals this year and has won its last 14 overall dating back to 2014.

Saturday’s competition also represented the final home meet for seniors Bridget Boushka, Tara Halsted, Lia Neal and Nicole Stafford.

Neal capped her home career with a pool record in the 400-yard freestyle relay. The two-time Olympian touched the Avery wall for the final time and stopped the clock at 3:15.05 — it was a half-second faster than the nine-year-old facility record set by Dwelley, Breeden, Smith and Smit. Fellow Olympians Simone Manuel and Katie Ledecky took the first two legs and Janet Hu covered the third 100. Stanford’s other seniors, Stafford and Halsted, also served as anchors in the final event.

Stanford set two other pool records on the sunny January afternoon. Manuel topped the mark set just one day earlier by Ledecky in the 200 free. Manuel hit the wall at 1:42.72. Neal was second at 1:44.59. In the next event, it was Hu’s turn. She topped her own record in the 100 backstroke by .04 with a first-place finish of 51.91.

Kassidy Cook earned the victory on the 1-meter with a score of 326.33. It marked the second straight weekend sweep in that event for Cook.

Manuel and Neal were also tops in the 50 and 100 freestyles, respectively. Manuel (22.14) out-touched Neal (22.53) in the 50, but Neal was first to the wall in the 100 at 48.18. Hu was also victorious in the 100 fly (52.05), while freshman Erin Voss edged out Ally Howe by five-hundreths of a second in the 200 backstroke with a time of 1:55.42. Sophomore Ella Eastin won at the wall in the 200 butterfly (1:55.35) and was tops in the 200 individual medley (1:58.11) ahead of freshman Allie Szekely (1:59.78). In addition, the winning 200 medley relay (1:38.52) featured Ally Howe, Heidi Poppe, Hu and Manuel.

USC sophomore Riley Scott swept the 100y and 200y breaststroke while sophomore Maddie Witt won the 3-meter springboard.

Cal tops UCLA

One day after beating USC, the No. 6 Cal women improved their record to 7-1 overall and 6-0 in the Pac-12 with a 165-128 win over No. 19 UCLA.

Chenoa Devine earned with second straight sub-10-minute 1000 free, finishing in 9:59.71.

Amy Bilquist — the national leader in the 100 back — swept the 100 free (1:47.20) and 200 free (48.85) for the Bears, while Noemie Thomas claimed both the 100 fly (52.45) and 200 fly (1:58.13). Thomas paces the NCAA in the 100 fly and is undefeated in the event this year.

Abbey Weitzeil sprinted to victory in the 50 free (22.24) and won the 100 breaststroke in 1:02.39.

Senior Celina Li won the 500 free in a season-best 4:53.31 and then came back barely 20 minutes later to win the 400 individual medley in 4:17.74.

In addition, sophomore Phoebe LaMay earned victories on both the 1-meter (289.35) and 3-meter (323.55) springboards.

UCLA senior Linnea Mack won the 100 backstroke in 53.22.

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Bill Bell

7 years ago

Manuel led off Stanford’s 400 FR Friday vs. USC in 47.38 — fastest 100 all- time in a collegiate dual- meet.

Louisvilke’s Mallory Comerford clicked a or 47.36 in October in Indianapolis during the Bug Ten- USA Challenge and test is fastest 100 all- tine in any dusk- meet,

But Manuel’l go 45 flat against Cal in a couple of weeks so it’ll be academic then!

Ledecky broke her Avery Awustics Centet 200 free record against the Trojans w/her 1:43.48, Her ok’d standard was a 1:44.18 against Washington St. Back in early October during her collegiate debut.

She also clocked a 9:12.32 1000 vs. USC (500 split: 4:38.05) and that is the second- fastest 1000 all-tine in a dual- meet — just shy of her collegiate-record 9:10-plus from earlier in the season against Texas.

If they swim the 1000 in the Cal dual as I expect she ought to be good for an 8:49-45 easy w/maybe a 4:15 500 and a1:38′ double century!