Jan. 21, 2005
Tempe, Ariz. - No. 8 Stanford (3-1, 1-0 Pac-10) opened its Pac-10 season with a convincing 177-117 win at No. 18 Arizona State (6-2-1, 1-2-1 Pac-10) in a short-course yards dual meet on Friday at the Mona Plummer Aquatic Center. Stanford won 13 of the 16 events contested with eight different Stanford women's and divers claiming individual victories. Lacey Boutwell (50 free, 100 free), Caroline Bruce (200 breast, 400 IM), Dana Kirk (100 fly, 200 fly) and Ashlee Rosenthal (1-meter diving, 3-meter diving) were two-time winners for the Cardinal. Brooke Bishop (200 back), Lauren Costella (1650 free), Desiree Stahley (200 free) and Elizabeth Durot (500 free) added one victory each. The Cardinal also captured the 200 medley relay with a team of Amy Wagner, Bruce, Kirk and Boutwell.
"This was a good way to start the Pac-10 dual meet season," said Stanford head coach Richard Quick. "We had a solid effort as a team and several different individuals performed very well."
Caroline Bruce picked up a pair of individual victories at Arizona State on Friday, including a win over 2000 Olympic gold medalist Agnes Kovacs in the 200 breast |
The highlight of the meet arguably came when Bruce outdueled 2000 Olympic gold medalist Agnes Kovacs in the 200 breast. Bruce, who finished ninth in the 200 meter breast at the 2004 Games in Sydney, clocked in with a season-best and NCAA "A" qualifying time of 2:11.69 that ranks her as the No. 3 all-time performer at Stanford, finishing .37 seconds ahead of Kovacs' NCAA "A" mark of 2:12.06. Bruce's time also moved her season's national rank up to fourth in the country in the event.
"Caroline Bruce had an excellent meet for us and her victory over Agnes Kovacs in the 200 breaststroke was significant," stated Quick. "It says something about you when you are able to beat an Olympic gold medalist."
Bruce was also a winner in the 400 IM with an NCAA "B" mark of 4:20.30. She finished second to Kovacs in the 100 breast with an NCAA "B" time of 1:02.02 that was just .15 seconds behind Kovacs' NCAA "A" mark of 1:01.87.
Kirk picked up a pair of NCAA "B" marks to sweep the 100 (season-best 54.50) and 200 (2:00.78) fly, edging ASU's Caitlin Andrews by just .02 seconds in the 100 but winning the 200 comfortably by 2.98 seconds over Ellis Schieman (2:03.76) of the Sun Devils.
Boutwell's wins in the 50 and 100 free both came by just .04 seconds. She had an NCAA "B" mark of 51.08 to edge the 51.12 posted by Arizona State's Florencia Szigeti in the 50. In the 100, her 23.58 was four-hundredths of a second better than teammate Brooke Bishop.
Rosenthal won both the 1-meter (265.35) and 3-meter (season-best 287.48) diving events to lead a dominating performance by the Cardinal divers, who outscored the Sun Devils by a count of 31-5 on the boards.
Costella had the only other NCAA "A" time of the meet other than Bruce and Kovacs when she won the 1650 free in a season-best 16:22.62, easily outdistancing second-place Sarah Fischer of Arizona State (16:54.64).
Stahley had an NCAA "B" performance to win the 200 free in 1:50.74, finishing .83 seconds ahead of second-place Sally Brown of Arizona State (1:51.57).
Bishop had an easy victory in the 200 back with a season-best time of 2:02.95, putting her 5.09 seconds in front of second-place Kari Wilcox of Arizona State (2:08.04).
Durot clocked in at 4:55.03 in her 500 free victory to finish 3.36 seconds ahead of Costella's 4:58.49.
The 200 medley relay time of 1:43.42 posted by Wagner, Bruce, Kirk and Boutwell edged Arizona State's time of 1:43.43 by just one-hundredth of second in the meet's exciting opening event.
Andrew had Arizona State's only other individual win with an NCAA "B" time of 55.80 in the 100 back with Wagner (57.69) her nearest competitor.
A team of Szigeti, Andrew, Erin Baldinger and Laura Ullrich gave the Sun Devils a victory in the meet-closing 200 free relay in a time of 1:34.00.
Stanford will continue its key Pac-10 road trip to the Arizona schools by heading to Tucson to meet No. 4 Arizona on Saturday, January 22 (1 pm, MT; 12 pm, PT). The Wildcats, who finished third last season at the 2004 NCAA Championships, remained unbeaten (7-0, 5-0 Pac-10) with a convincing 144-99 victory over No. 7 California on Friday. Stanford was a 166-134 winner over Arizona last season, but the Wildcats defeated the Cardinal by a count of 166.5-132.5 the last time the teams met in Tucson in 2003.
"We are looking forward to having a good meet tomorrow against a very tough Arizona team," offered Quick.