March 17, 2011
AUSTIN, Texas-- Freshman Maya DiRado was a national runner-up in the 200 individual medley, Meg Hostage was third in the one-meter and Stanford had three in the top-10 of the 50 free to sit in third place after the first of three days at the NCAA Championships.
Georgia leads the overall field with 129 points, followed by USC (122), Stanford (116) and Cal (115). Stanford had All-American, top-16 finishes in five of the six events.
DiRado, who finished third to winner Katinka Hosszu at the Pac-10s, bettered her best time to 1:54.66, behind Hosszu's time of 1:54.19. DiRado came in with the nation's fourth-fastest time (1:55.11), finished fourth in the prelims (1:55.62) and then swam a second faster.
Hostage remained in third throughout the first day, finishing with a score of 327.65 after a prelim score of 307.80. Hostage has now finished third or better in five of the last seven post season diving events. The senior's finish briefly put Stanford in second, before the Cardinal were eighth (3:34.31) in the 400 medley relay-- a movement of six spots from ranking No. 14 coming in.
Stanford had moved up to third following 31 points from three Cardinal in the top-10 of the 50 free.
Betsy Webb, who entered the championships with the 12th-fastest time, finished sixth in the prelims (22.15), before bettering that for fourth (22.5) behind winner, Auburn's Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace's time of 21.38. Kate Dwelley and Sam Woodward tied for the consolation title, both finishing with a mark of 22.22, for ninth.
The championships run through Saturday with the 200 medley and 800 free relays sandwiching the: 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast, 100 back and three-meter on Friday. Friday and Saturday's finals are on ESPN3.com.
NOTES: DiRado's time of 1:54.66 remains No. 3 all-time at Stanford behind Olympians Julia Smit and Elaine Breeden and ahead of Summer Sanders... Hostage has finished in the top-three five of the last seven championship diving events-- a platform championship at Pac-10s, a second place finish in the one-meter at Zones, and third place finishes in the Zone platform and Pac-10 and NCAA one-meter.
Full Results:
http://www.collegeswimming.com/2011-NCAA-Women/
Live Blog:
http://www.collegeswimming.com/2011-NCAA-Women/
Live Video (Friday and Saturday finals only):
www.espn3.com
Stanford All-Americans (or top finishers if outside top-16)
Thursday (3rd, 116 points)
200 Free Relay: 4. Woodward/Webb/Murez/Dwelley, 1:28.15
(500 Free: 32. Ditto, 4:44.65)
200 IM: 2. DiRado, 1:54.66
50 Free: 4. Webb, 22.05; 9. Dwelley, 22.22, 9. Woodward, 22.2
One-Meter: 3. Hostage, 327.65
400 Medley Relay: 8. Webb/Smith/Lee/Dwelley, 3:34.31