Nov. 17, 2005
Long Beach, Calif. - No. 3 Stanford swept all five events on the first day of action Thursday to bolt into a large first-place lead at the Speedo Cup being held at the Belmont Pool. Stanford's 551.5 points is more than double the total of second-place Brigham Young.
Brooke Bishop (50 free, 22.99), Dana Kirk (200 IM, 2:00.50) and Elizabeth Durot (500 free, 4:45.15) were individual winners. Kirk and Durot both had NCAA "A" times in their victories with Kirk also recording a personal-best. Bishop's posted an NCAA "B" mark in her win.
The Cardinal also had NCAA "B" times in winning both the 200 free relay (1:33.27) with a team Caroline Rodriguez, Madeline Rovira, Alexa Merz and Bishop, as well as the 400 medley relay (3:40.75) with Bishop, Erica Liu, Kirk and Rovira.
Other NCAA "B" for Stanford swimmers were recorded in the 500 free by Desiree Stahley (4:48.79) and Morgan Hentzen (4:51.03) in their second and third-place finishes, as well as Kristen Caverly in her second-place 200 IM showing (2:00.57).
"It was great to get a couple of "A" cuts and several "B" times today," said Stanford head coach Lea Maurer. "Our goal is to set ourselves up for a great training session over the holidays. The overriding goal is to be able to get to the NCAA meet in March without having to expand all of our energy before then. We want to get some good times now and emotionally gear up for the NCAA's."
The Speedo Cup continues on Friday and Saturday with prelims beginning each day at 8:30 am, PT, as well as finals starting at 6:00 pm, PT.