Jan. 28, 2006
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Los Angeles, Calif. - No. 3 Stanford (13-1, 4-1 Pac-10) recovered from its first loss of the season at No. 7 UCLA on Friday by traveling across town and defeating No. 11 USC (3-4, 1-3 Pac-10) at by a score of 158-142 on Saturday to earn a split against the Southern California schools. The Cardinal took control of a close meet by sweeping five straight races in the middle of the event. Brooke Bishop won three events for the second straight day, taking the 50 and 100 free as well as the 100 back to lead the Cardinal.
"This victory was a tribute to the heart of our team and our tenacity," said Stanford head coach Lea Maurer. "We learned from some of the mistakes we made yesterday (at UCLA), won some close races and were a little more focused and tough."
"The momentum swung back and forth early in the meet before we really kind of took control in the middle of the meet," continued Maurer. "Everybody stepped up and did a little more today."
Stanford also got two victories each from Dana Kirk (100 fly, 200 fly) and Cassidy Krug (1-meter diving, 3-meter diving), as well as one each from Kristen Caverly (200 back) and Lauren Costella (1650 free).
Rebecca Soni (100 breast, 200 breast, 400 IM) won three events to lead USC's effort, while Rhi Jeffrey (200 free) and Kalyn Keller (500 free) captured one each. The Women of Troy also swept the 400 free and 400 medley relays.
USC started the day with a victory in the 400 medley relay when a team of Haley McGregory, Soni, Kristen Lahey and Jeffrey checked in a with an NCAA "B" time of 3:44.16 to finish comfortably ahead of the second-place Cardinal foursome of Caverly, Erica Liu, Kirk and Madeline Rovira (3:46.44).
Costella energized the Cardinal when she upset 2005 Pac-10 champion Keller in the 1650 free with an NCAA "A" and season-best time of 16:23.14. Keller finished second in 16:28.93, while Morgan Hentzen (16:58.43) and Anna Strohl (16:59.20) took third and fourth to give the Cardinal three of the top four places in the event.
"Lauren started us off with a great victory," commented Maurer. "She willed her way to that win and showed a ton of heart. That win set the tone for the day."
The top two spots in the 200 free belonged to USC as Rhi's victory in 1:49.52 (NCAA "B") was followed by the second-place effort of Rachael Waller (1:50.13, NCAA "B").
Bishop won her first event of the day with a victory in the 100 back (54.61, NCAA "B") with McGregory's second-place effort in a time of 55.65 also met the NCAA "B" standard.
Soni came back for USC with a win in the 100 breast in a blistering NCAA "A" mark of 1:01.07. Missy McIntyre (1:03.05) and Caverly (1:03.20) also recorded NCAA "B" times in their second and third-place finishes for USC and Stanford, respectively.
Kirk responded with the first of Stanford's key five-victory run by taking the 200 fly in an NCAA "B" time of 1:58.87, easily defeating second-place Cait Connealy of USC (2:03.09) and helping to redeem her Friday loss to UCLA's Kim Vandenberg.
Bishop won the next two swimming events, sandwiched around a 1-meter diving victory from Krug (301.01). Bishop checked in with a 22.99 to win the 50 free and a 49.98 in the 100 free, both NCAA "B" marks.
Caverly completed Stanford's run with a victory in the 200 back (1:59.93, NCAA "B"), while the trio of Andrea Axtell (2:00.15, NCAA "B"), Laura Wadden (2:03.05) and Tami Ransom (2:03.12) punctuated it by finishing second, third and fourth.
Soni ended Stanford's stretch with a 200 breast win (2:14.07, NCAA "B") before Keller (4:53.98, NCAA "B") edged Stanford's Morgan Hentzen (4:54.71) in the 500 free.
Kirk made it a clean sweep of the fly events and ended any legitimate chance of a USC comeback with her easy victory in the 100 (54.03, NCAA "B"), winning by 2.04 seconds over USC's Emily Goetsch (56.07).
Krug added her second victory and the final Cardinal win of the day with a 3-meter diving win (310.43) that was backed up by the second-place finish of Katie Lampe (260.93).
USC won the final two events of the afternoon but it was not enough to overcome Stanford's lead. Soni got her third victory of the day by capturing the 400 IM (4:16.24, NCAA "B") before Connealy, McIntyre, Waller and Jeffrey gave the Women of Troy a sweep in the relays by taking the 400 yard free relay in an NCAA "B" time of 3:22.58. USC just edged a Stanford team of Rovira, Desiree Stahley, Fiona O'Donnell-McCarthy and Bishop that finished just .04 seconds back with an NCAA "B" mark of 3:22.62.
Stanford will conclude its 2005-06 regular season dual meet schedule by hosting California at the Avery Aquatic Center on Saturday, February 11 (1:00 pm, PT). The divers will also be in non-conference action at BYU on Friday, February 10 (1:00 pm, MT).