March 21, 2013
INDIANAPOLIS - Stanford set a school record in the 400 medley relay Thursday to open the 2013 NCAA Women's Swimming and Diving Championships at IU Natatorium. The Cardinal was second with a 3:30.86 in the prelims of the 400 medley relay and came back to set a school-record 3:30.06 for fourth in the finals. Maya DiRado, Sarah Haase, Felicia Lee and Andi Murez teamed to better the 3:30.45 set by the Cardinal in 2010.
Georgia (163) leads the field through day one in front of Tennessee (150.5), Arizona (127) and Cal (102). Stanford is fifth with 90.5 points.
"I was really pleased with day one of the meet as we exceeded our seeded points by quite a bit," Stanford head coach Greg Meehan said. "Losing half of our relays to graduation, I'm so proud of these women to finish fourth in both relays with a school record in the 400 medley.
"Individually, Maya DiRado and Maddy Schaefer were awesome. We need to be ready to go for tomorrow's preliminary session."
The meet will resume Friday with live results available at GoStanford.com.
Stanford's Schaefer, Murez, Alex Whitford and Lee tapped in at 1:28.60 in the prelims for the six seed in the 200 free relay. The finals saw the quartet go 1:27.90 for fourth.
Julia Anderson (4:45.04) was 33rd in the 500 free in front of Allison Brown (40th - 4:46.30) and Andie Taylor (44th - 4:47.21).
DiRado (1:54.56) shelved the fastest 200 IM time in the prelims but fell back to third overall with a 1:53.86 evening swim. American record holder and defending NCAA champion Caitlin Leverenz of Cal won the event in 1:53.39, over two seconds under her preliminary performance.
Schaefer got out to a meet-best 10.58 in the first length of the 50 free to post a 21.99 for third in the prelims. It was her first collegiate sub-22.00 showing. Schaefer fell one spot with a 22.01 for fourth-place points in the finals.
"The team is excited about the opportunity in front of us this week," Meehan said. "We've worked really hard and have come a long way since September. Now is the time to enjoy being together as a group and racing with a passion for our University."
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