Pac-12 Weekly Preview: No. 3 Stanford, No. 4 Cal Head to Arizona

The No. 3 Stanford women are in the middle of a highly anticipated season.

The Cardinal are the two-time defending NCAA champions, but after last year, lost Olympians Katie Ledecky, Simone Manuel and Kassidy Cook, not to mention national champions Ally Howe and Janet Hu.

But Stanford is still loaded with talent, led by senior and reining NCAA Swimmer of the Year Ella Eastin, veterans Katie Drabot and Brooke Forde as well as freshman phenom Taylor Ruck.

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The Cardinal return to action for their first competition since before Thanksgiving this weekend.

Stanford will compete at Arizona on Friday and at Arizona State on Saturday.

The last time competition, Stanford won the Ohio State Invitational behind Eastin.

Eastin swept the individual medleys. The defending NCAA champion in those events, she was first in the 200 with an ‘A’ qualifying time of 1:53.41, and then hit the same standard in the 400 with a finish of 4:00.70. The Irvine, California, native was also tops in the 200 butterfly – eight months removed from her American record-setting performance in the same pool – she bested the Fall field at 1:52.07. And once again, in similar fashion to the NCAA meet in Columbus, teammate Drabot was the runner-up in the 200 fly (1:53.38).

The Stanford men have not had as long of a layoff after beating Pacific on Jan. 11.

Freshman diver Conor Casey highlighted the day with wins in both the 1-meter and 3-meter springboards. Casey won the 1-meter with a score of 358.73 before winning the 3-meter with a stellar 392.70. Casey recently competed in the USA Winter Trials in Atlanta, finishing fourth on the synchronized 3-meter, third on the 1-meter and 10th on the 3-meter.

Meanwhile, No. 4 Cal will also be pulling the Arizona double this weekend.

The Golden Bears, led by Katie McLaughlin, Abbey Weitzeil and Amy Bilquist, will start at Arizona State on Friday, then move to Tucson to face Arizona on Saturday.

In other Pac-12 action, Utah will host BYU on Friday and Saturday.

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