PHOENIX, Arizona, February 7. FRESHMAN Elaine Breeden of Division I Stanford University and sophomore Matt Stewart of Division III Gustavus Adolphus College were named Swimming World Magazine's College Swimmers of the Week.
The award is an extension of the National Collegiate Swimmer of the Week honors given out by Collegeswimming.com across three divisions of NCAA competition. While both Breeden and Stewart won their respective Division I and Division III awards from Collegeswimming.com, Pat Carey of UC Santa Barbara won the male Division I honor, while Katherine Thornton of MIT took home Division III kudos. Meanwhile, Alison Maxwell and Pedro Pereira of North Dakota garnered the Division II awards.
For more information on the Collegeswimming.com National Collegiate Swimmer of the Week award, click here.
Breeden swept the 100 and 200 butterfly to help lead top-ranked Stanford to a thrilling 153-147 victory at No. 3 California and complete the team's first unbeaten dual meet season since 2001-02. The Cardinal will head into postseason action with a 10-0 overall record and 6-0 Pac-10 mark. Breeden recorded the nation's top time this season in her 200 win (1:53.23) and the country's second-best mark in the 100 victory (51.70). She also nearly broke school records in both of the events, missing Shelly Ripple's 200 standard by a mere three-hundredths of a second and Misty Hyman's 100 mark by just 0.36. She is now the No. 2 all-time performer at Stanford in the 200 and ranks No. 3 in the 100. She also broke Spieker Aquatics Complex pool records previously held by California's Natalie Coughlin and defeated 2004 Olympic gold medalist in both events.
Stewart led Gustavus to a 169.5-148.5 win over UW-Stevens Point in the Lund Natatorium in St. Peter, Minn. The Gusties won nine of the 17 events and set six pool records. Stewart capped off a strong regular season by setting pool records in the 200 butterfly (1:54.07 – the old record was 1:54.96), the 500 freestyle (4:39.16 – the old record was 4:44.19), and the 200 IM (1:56.17 – the old record was 1:58.95).