By Dan D’Addona.
After two amazing weekends packed with four meets and record-breaking performances, the Stanford and Cal women’s swim teams will have two weeks off before their epic showdown to close out the Pac-12 regular season on Feb. 11.
It is hard to wait two weeks for that!
These two teams will be fighting for the Pac-12 and NCAA Championship against each other, so of course, their dual meet is the final event of the regular season.
The teams are loaded with household names in the world of swimming, even a couple that might just be household names everywhere in country.
Stanford has Olympic legends Katie Ledecky and Simone Manuel, whose feats were of historic proportions in Rio. The Cardinal also has two more U.S. Olympians in sprinter Lia Neal and diver Kassidy Cook, not to mention national champion Ella Eastin and another title contender in Janet Hu.
This team is stacked, but so is Cal.
Olympians Kathleen Baker and Abbey Weitzeil lead the way, along with national title contender Amy Bilquist, who has the fastest 100-yard backstroke time in the country this season. Egyptian Olympian Farida Osman and senior All-American Celina Li make this another team full of elite potential.
Baker and Ledecky set a couple of the many pool records these two teams clocked during the weekend. Both teams defeated No. 4 USC and No. 19 UCLA.
Those teams proved that the Pac-12 meet will be insanely fast this season, but also with both team’s big victories over USC, they proved that there will not be a third conference title contender.
Here is a look at the strong performances this weekend:
Stanford tops USC
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.
Cal beats USC
Cal’s Kathleen Baker set a pool record in the 200-yard backstroke and Cal hung on to defeat USC, 165-135, Friday, handing the Trojans their first loss of the season.
Baker, who captured a silver medal in the 100-meter back at the 2016 Olympics, entered the day as the national leader in the 200-yard back. She came through in record fashion, touching the wall in 1:53.66 to break the pool and Cal dual-meet mark of 1:53.94 set by Elizabeth Pelton three years ago. Baker also won the 200 individual medley in 1:57.13 and took second in the 100 back.
Freshman Abbey Weitzeil, also a medalist at the Olympics last summer, won her specialty, the 50 free, in 22.27, with senior Farida Osman right behind in 22.41.
Sophomore Katie McLaughlin captured the 500 free in 4:47.50 and was the runner-up in the 200 fly.
In the 1,000 free, freshman Chenoa Devine set a personal best and posted the No. 10 all-time mark at Cal with her first-place finish in 9:52.51. She was also second to McLaughlin in the 500 free.
Other winners for the Bears were Amy Bilquist in the 100 back (52.25) and Noemie Thomas in the 100 fly (52.35). Both are the national leaders and undefeated in their respective events in dual meets this season.
USC’s Louise Hansson won the free in 1:44.86, ahead of Weitzeil (1:45.01). She also won the 100 freestyle (48.77) again ahead of Weitzeil (48.88).
Riley Scott won the 100 breaststroke (1:00.88) and the 200 breaststroke (2:10.37). Maddy Wright won the 200 butterfly (1:55.16).
Stanford tops UCLA
Katie Ledecky and Janet Hu each won twice as No. 2 Stanford women’s swimming and diving topped No. 19 UCLA, 127-104.
Stanford won its 13th consecutive dual meet and improved to 6-0 in this season and 5-0 against the Pac-12.
Ledecky won the 200 freestyle in 1:43.48 and broke her own Avery Aquatic Center standard by about a second. She also won the 100 free with a time of 49.33.
Hu was first in the 200 butterfly with a time of 1:55.75 and just out-touched senior teammate Lia Neal (22.60) with a finish of 22.46 in the 50 free.
The Cardinal also won both diving events. Freshman Haley Farnsworth was tops on the 3-meter (311.48), while junior Kassidy Cook earned her third win in the last eight days on the 1-meter (300.08).
Ally Howe won the 200 individual medley (1:59.28), while Simone Manuel finished first in the 500 free at 4:47.1.
Check out the full results here.
