Nov. 4, 2005
Irvine, Calif. - No. 4 Stanford (6-0) cruised to a spot in Saturday's championship pool by defeating all four of the teams in its pool on the first day of the Big West Shootout at the Anteater Aquatics Complex. The closest meet for the Cardinal came with an 80-59 decision over Hawaii with other wins versus Idaho (116-13), Pepperdine (118-21) and UC Davis (107-32).
The top two teams from each of Friday's pools and the next highest finisher advanced to Saturday's championship pool. Washington will join the Cardinal after sweeping all four of its opponents in the opposite pool Friday, while Hawaii, UC Davis and host UC Irvine also qualified for Saturday's championship pool.
"We absolutely accomplished what we wanted to do today," said Stanford head coach Lea Maurer, noting that the goal was to challenge a Cardinal team that continued an intense training program before the meet. "It's stressful for our swimmers, but as a coach it is just what I envisioned. We performed well when we were tired and beat a pretty tough Hawaii team that was rested for the meet."
Stanford won eight of the day's 16 events and made a strong finish by taking four of the final six. Erica Liu won a pair of individual races for the Cardinal by sweeping the 100 (1:04.63) and 200 (2:18.85) breast. Other individual Stanford winners included Brooke Bishop (100 fly, 55.53), Laura Davis (200 fly, 2:03.94), Elizabeth Durot (500 free, 4:54.22) and Morgan Hentzen (1650 free, 16:37.98, NCAA "B"). The Cardinal also swept the 200 medley (1:45.03) and 200 free (1:37.24) relays to open and close the day's action.
Hawaii won the other eight events in Stanford's pool with triples by Melanie Schlanger and Nicole Markey keying the Rainbow Wahine performance. Both recorded NCAA "B" times in each of their victories. Schlanger won the 50 (23.27), 100 (50.19) and 200 (1:49.46) free. Markey captured the 100 (54.99) and 200 (1:59.23) back, as well as the 400 IM (4:19.71). Qiongjie Huang added the final two victories for Hawaii by sweeping the 1-meter (349.55) and 3-meter (298.55) diving events, both with NCAA qualifying point totals.
Additional NCAA "B" times were recorded in the meet by Kristen Caverly with her second-place finish to Markey in the 200 back (2:01.06) and Lauren Costella with her second-place showing in the 1650 free (16:39.63).