Feb. 11, 2006
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Stanford, Calif. - No. 3 California (11-0, 7-0 Pac-10) swam past No. 6 Stanford (13-2, 4-2 Pac-10) by a score of 169-131 in the regular season dual meet finale for both teams at the Avery Aquatic Center on Saturday. The Golden Bears completed a perfect regular season, while the Cardinal lost for just the second time. California scratched out two more event victories than the Cardinal, winning that battle by a count of 9-7.
Ashley Chandler (500 free, 1000 free) and Anne Babicz (100 breast, 200 breast) captured two events each for California; while Emily Silver, Erin Reilly (200 free) and Helen Silver (200 back) added one win each. The Golden Bears also swept the relay events (200 medley, 400 free).
Dana Kirk led the Cardinal with three victories, sweeping the 100 and 200 fly while also taking the 200 IM. Brooke Bishop (50 free, 100 back) and Cassidy Krug (1-meter diving, 3-meter diving) picked up a pair of wins each.
"It was a fast meet today," said Stanford head coach Lea Maurer. "We actually swam well and had some huge successes. They were just a little faster."
Bishop broke Jenny Thompson's 14-year-old pool record (22.87) in her 50 free win, checking in with a personal-best and NCAA "A" qualifying mark of 22.58 that improves her hold as the school's No. 6 all-time performer in the event. Bishop also had a personal-best and NCAA "A" qualifying time of 53.97 in her 100 back win, coming within .08 seconds of the pool record set by Stanford's Catherine Fox in 1997.
Much of California's victory was keyed by its depth, beginning with the first event when the Golden Bears went 1-2 in the 200 medley relay. California's `A' team of Lauren Rogers, Jessica Hardy, Babicz and Helen Silver checked in with a time of 1:41.04, followed by a Golden Bear `B' squad of Lara Pease, Genevieve Patterson, Leann Toomey and Kelly Stravers that hit the final wall in 1:41.63 to beat Stanford's top team (Fiona O'Donnell-McCarthy, Kristen Caverly, Kirk, Madeline Rovira) that checked in with a 1:41.89 mark.
Chandler then swam to a dominating victory in the 1000 free (9:45.52), which was 11.15 seconds ahead of the second-place mark of 9:56.47 posted by Lauren Costella of Stanford.
The Golden Bears then went 1-2-3 in the 200 free as Reilly's victory in an NCAA "A" time of 1:46.92 was backed by Lauren Andrews (1:48.82) and Emily Silver (1:49.70).
Bishop gave Stanford its first win with her 100 back victory but California answered in the next event by going 1-2 in the 100 breast as Babicz (1:01.02) just out-touched Hardy (1:01.09) in NCAA "A" times for both. Caverly (1:02.39) also reached the NCAA "A" qualifying standard in her third-place finish.
Stanford would make a little run at the Golden Bears with three consecutive victories, closing the gap to 82-68 at the end of the run.
Kirk started the stretch with the first of three victories by winning the 200 fly in an NCAA "A" mark of 1:57.19, comfortably ahead of Cal's second-place finisher Racel Ridgeway (1:59.00). Bishop then posted her stellar performance to win the 50 free before Krug took the 1-meter diving competition with 337.87 points as Stanford outscored California in the event, 16-3.
However, California put an end to any Cardinal hopes for a victory when Emily Silver (100 free, 50.00), Helen Silver (200 back, 1:56.45, NCAA "A"), Babicz (200 breast, 2:13.51, NCAA "A") and Chandler (500 free, 4:42.71, NCAA "A") came up with four consecutive victories.
Bishop (200 back, 1:57.71) and Caverly (200 breast, 2:13.87) were able to manage NCAA "A" marks in their respective second-place showings as did California's Lauren Rogers in her third-place 200 back finish in 1:58.02.
Stanford managed to win each of the final three individual events with Kirk taking both the 100 fly (53.64, NCAA "A") and 200 IM (2:01.08), while Krug made it a clean sweep of the diving events with her 3-meter victory.
California finished the meet by breaking the 400 free relay pool record in 3:20.73 with a team of Reilly, Andrews, Rogers and Emily Silver.
Stanford will next be in action at the Pac-10 Championships. The swimmers will compete in Long Beach from February 22-25, while the divers action goes from February 23-25 in Federal Way.
"We're in good shape for the championship portion of our season," said Maurer. "I'm confident that we will have a great championship meet."