LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Four Cardinal won multiple events, including three victories from sophomore Katie Ledecky, and No. 3 Stanford women's swimming and diving topped USC, 223-77, on Saturday.
"I'm really proud of the team's performance at the end of back-to-back weekends of racing," said Paul A. Violich Director of Women's Swimming Greg Meehan. "This team takes a lot of pride in how they compete from start-to-finish, and it says a lot about our culture.
"Katie Ledecky's double to start the meet was really impressive, Grace Zhao is continuing to blossom, and our divers were great on the boards again."
Ledecky's early double came in back-to-back events in the 1,000 and 200-yard freestyles, respectively. The Bethesda, Maryland, native won the longest distance race of the day by more than 30 seconds. Stanford took the top four spots, led by Ledecky's finish of 9:15.96, and followed by freshman Brooke Forde's career-best of 9:45.23.
Ledecky went right back in the water and won the 200 – by nearly full three seconds. Just after the 1,000, she had an impressive sprint of 1:43.24. Later in the meet, she swam another 500 yards in 4:36.61 to claim her third victory of the afternoon. Stanford once again had the top four times in the event as sophomore Megan Byrnes (4:52.12), junior Leah Stevens (4:53.38) and freshman Katie Glavinovich (4:54.68) were the next to touch.
Zhao swept the breaststroke with season-best performances in both races. The freshman stopped the clock at 1:00.72 in the 100, and followed that with a finish of 2:09.88 in the 200. It marked her second sweep of the breaststrokes in the last two weekends.
Junior Ella Eastin and senior Janet Hu also won a pair of events to lead Stanford to its 22nd consecutive dual meet victory. Eastin won decisively in the 200 butterfly (1:54.59), and topped a trio of teammates in the 200 individual medley (1:56.26). Hu won the 100 fly (52.81), and once again swam side-by-side to with senior Ally Howe in the 100 back – Hu (52.24) edged Howe (52.60).
The Cardinal also swept the diving events. Freshman Abby Gardner garnered her first career win with a score of 291.30 on the 1-meter, and sophomore Haley Farnsworth had the top score on the 3-meter with a career-best 326.85. Farnsworth was also the narrow runner-up to Gardner on the 1-meter (290.63).
Senior Simone Manuel won the 100 free at 48.13, and sophomore Erin Voss was tops in the 200 back (1:54.31).
Once again, Stanford won both relays. Howe, Zhao, Hu and Manuel sped to a finish of 1:3779 in the 200 medley relay, and the foursome of Hu, Green, Ledecky and Manuel won the 400 free relay at 3:15.71.
Stanford returns home for Senior Day on Feb. 10 against Cal. The meet starts at noon, and the Cardinal will be accepting donations at the door for Stanford University's Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.
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