Columbus, Ohio
Thursday, March 20 (9:24 pm, ET)
So sometime ago our head coach Lea told us a story about how, sometime during her time in college, Jenny Thompson had DQed their 200 free relay. Instead of condemning her, the team gathered around her and rallied, coming back from that 40 point deficit to not only win the meet, but to dominate it. Instead of it being an open and shut case, it was a team effort, where every point, every person, and every swim made the difference.
Our 200 Free relay was disqualified in tonight's finals, and a situation that felt pretty good and pretty comfortable all of a sudden looked like it might turn into a massive black hole, but that's not what happened. That's not what being a Stanford swimmer is all about. The team rallied and rallied big as Elaine Breeden, Kate Dwelley and Liz Smith brought home a 1-2-3 finish in the consolation finals of the 200 IM, the very next race. Stanford continued to rally as Julia Smit took fourth in the championship finals of the IM and senior captain Brooke Bishop moved from 15th in the prelims to 10th in the finals of the 50.
The ultimate rally came in the 400 medley relay, an event that Stanford had barely managed to sneak into with an eighthth place finish in the preliminary sessions this morning. Lead off by Smit, who was followed by Bruce, Breeden and Bishop (Stanford's Big Four), the group finished third in the event, an awesome effort. That ended everything on a high positive note going into day two, the longest and arguably the most difficult day.