By Dan D’Addona.
When Katie Ledecky put on a Stanford swim cap for the first time, it was a good bet that Stanford is going to win.
But the Cardinal have won a lot in the past, last year, nearly winning the NCAA championships.
When that cap came on, the real winner was college swimming as a whole.
Ledecky is arguably the most dominant athlete on the planet, male or female, and after showcasing that dominance on the Olympic stage to become a household name, she has begun her collegiate career.
And everyone is going to want to see her. This can do nothing but generate even more interest for college swimming.
It showed in her first meet, a road dual meet at Oregon State. The Beavers do not have a dominant swim program, but the meet was sold out.
Now, it is not just Ledecky that people want to see. It is easy to forget that Simone Manuel has returned to Stanford after a year off to train for the Olympics. That year off paid off and Manuel had a historic trip to Rio, becoming the first African-American female to win a gold medal — and added a second gold, too.
Plus you have Olympic diver and All-American Kassidy Cook on Stanford’s team.
There are so many stars on the team it will be easy to overlook Ella Eastin and Janet Hu, who are stars in their own right, plus other future-star freshman Allie Szekely, Megan Byrnes and Katie Drabot.
It is going to be a year in the spotlight for Stanford, which will be a victory year for all of college swimming.
Stanford defeated the Beavers 141-109 in the opener. Here are some of the highlights:
The first event of the season was the 200-yard medley relay and Hu teamed with three new faces from last year. Szekely swam the second leg, followed by Manuel, who returned after a year training for the Olympics, where she won two gold medals in Rio, followed by Ledecky’s anchor leg. The relay finished in 1:42.92.
It marked the first collegiate race for Szekely and Ledecky, who also earned their first individual wins of their careers in the 200-yard backstroke (1:57.41) and 100-yard freestyle (50.10), respectively.
They weren’t the only freshman contributors.
Stanford’s freshmen posted four wins as Byrnes and Drabot their first victories. Byrnes touched the wall first in the 1,000-yard freestyle at 9:58.25, and Drabot stopped the clock at 1:47.95 to edge teammate Eastin in the 200-yard freestyle.
Sophomore Kim Williams won both breaststroke events, winning the 100 and 200 in 1:03.57 and 2:17.09, respectively.
It wasn’t just the underclassmen. Ally Howe won the 100-yard backstroke in 52.85, Lindsey Engel won the 50-yard freestyle and Hu won the 200-yard butterfly (1:57.96). Manuel swam in the 100-yard butterfly and finished with the top time of 54.47, and Howe also bested the field in the 200-yard individual medley (2:02.24).
Oregon State senior Czasarina Isleta finished in second in the 100-yard breaststroke with a touch of 1:05.44, nearly tying her season best by one-hundredth of a second.
My daughter swam against Allie in the Medley relay at the Pa State meet. Allie team win with a new state record, my daughter team came in third.