The first night of the women’s Pac-12 championships in Federal Way, Wash., featured two dramatic relay victories for the Stanford Cardinal, one in come-from-behind fashion and the other in record-setting fashion.
Stanford edged out Cal to win the first event of the meet, the 200 medley relay, in dramatic fashion as Simone Manuel overtook Farida Osman on the anchor leg to touch the wall a tenth of a second ahead.
Ally Howe (23.63), Kim Williams (27.25), Janet Hu (22.66) and Manuel (20.78) came in at 1:34.32, while Cal’s Amy Bilquist (23.81), Abbey Weitzeil (27.00), Noemie Thomas (22.52) and Osman (21.09) finished in 1:34.42.
Manuel’s ridiculous split is the fastest in history, two one-hundredths better than Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace’s 20.80 from 2012.
Both squads just missed the American and NCAA record of 1:34.15 set by Stanford’s team of Howe, Sarah Haase, Hu and Lia Neal in 2006, and the swims rank as the top two in the country this season.
USC finished third with Hannah Leach, Riley Scott, Louise Hansson and Anika Apostalon finishing in 1:35.18, and Arizona took fourth in 1:35.47. Competing for the Wildcats were Taylor Garcia, Kennedy Lohman, Annie Ochitwa and Katrinka Konopka, the same foursome that previously held the top time in the country at 1:34.63.
Rounding out the top eight were UCLA (1:36.92), Arizona State (1:37.67), Utah (1:38.95) and Washington State (1:39.65).
Meanwhile, Cal’s B-team posted a strong time of 1:35.99, and that included an impressive 23.57 backstroke split from Kathleen Baker, the fastest split of the night.
Later on, Stanford won a second relay with a dominant swim in the 800 free relay, and it came in American and NCAA record-time. The foursome of Lia Neal (1:43.34), Katie Drabot (1:43.43), Ella Eastin (1:42.37) and Katie Ledecky (1:40.28) finished in 6:49.42, taking down the previous mark of 6:50.18 set by Cal at the same meet two years ago.
Notably, the Cardinal pulled off this record-breaking swim without Manuel on the relay. Swimmers can swim a maximum of three individual events and four relays or two individual events and five relays at a championship meet, so Stanford coach Greg Meehan apparently decided that this would be the relay he held Manuel out of. The strategy obviously paid off in a big way.
Cal finished second in 6:53.37 with a team of Kathleen Baker (1:43.17), Katie McLaughlin (1:42.82), Abbey Weitzeil (1:43.84) and Amy Bilquist (1:43.54), and USC’s Louise Hansson (1:42.10), Tatum Wade (1:43.36), Kirsten Vose (1:43.42) and Anika Apostalon (1:45.36) finished third in 6:54.24.
The next five teams to finish were UCLA (7:04.84), Arizona (7:05.30), Arizona State (7:07.06), Washington State (7:14.51) and Utah (7:15.51).
Men’s 1-meter diving was also contested Wednesday night, with Stanford’s Bradley Christensen finishing first with a score of 375.90. Arizona State’s Youssef Selim was just behind in second with 367.70, and Stanford ended up picking up more big points with Tarek Abdeighany finishing third (337.97), Cameron Thatcher taking fourth (336.80) and Theodore Miclau placing eighth (293.45).
Also in the championship final were USC’s Dashiell Enos (324.95), Cal’s Connor Callahan (315.20) and ASU’s Heikki Makikallio (307.65).
More to come after the 800 free relay is contested.
Splits
200 medley relay
1 STAN-PC 'A' 1:36.53 1:34.32 64
1) Howe, Ally JR 2) Williams, Kim SO
3) Hu, Janet JR 4) Manuel, Simone SO
23.63 27.25 22.66 20.78
2 CAL-PC 'A' 1:35.19 1:34.42 56
1) Bilquist, Amy SO 2) Weitzeil, Abbey FR
3) Thomas, Noemie JR 4) Osman, Farida SR
23.81 27.00 22.52 21.09
3 USC-CA 'A' 1:36.30 1:35.18 54
1) Leach, Hannah SO 2) Scott, Riley SO
3) Hansson, Louise FR 4) Apostalon, Anika SR
24.21 26.68 22.76 21.53
800 free relay
1 STAN-PC 'A' 6:55.54 6:49.42 64
1) Neal, Lia SR 2) Drabot, Katie FR
3) Eastin, Ella SO 4) Ledecky, Katie FR
24.07 50.02 1:16.68 1:43.34
23.74 50.10 1:16.52 1:43.43
23.91 49.91 1:16.09 1:42.37
23.02 48.42 1:14.45 1:40.28
2 CAL-PC 'A' 6:58.83 6:53.37 56
1) Baker, Kathleen SO 2) McLaughlin, Katie SO
3) Weitzeil, Abbey FR 4) Bilquist, Amy SO
24.02 50.01 1:16.26 1:43.17
23.81 50.34 1:16.78 1:42.82
23.17 49.05 1:16.04 1:43.84
23.54 49.95 1:16.66 1:43.54
3 USC-CA 'A' 7:03.92 6:54.24 54
1) Hansson, Louise FR 2) Wade, Tatum FR
3) Vose, Kirsten SO 4) Apostalon, Anika SR
23.69 49.50 1:15.75 1:42.10
23.64 49.76 1:16.50 1:43.36
23.13 49.05 1:15.96 1:43.42
23.96 51.24 1:18.65 1:45.36
Amelia Snelling Metz
she’s amazing
Yeah Simone and Stanford