Feb. 27, 2008
Long Beach, Calif. - No. 2 Stanford sits in third place in a close race for the lead after the first day of the Pac-10 Championships at the Belmont Plaza Pool on Thursday. California (118) holds a slim two-point advantage over Arizona (116) with Stanford's 112 points just six back of the Golden Bears. Stanford finished second in both the 200 medley relay and 800 free relay behind Arizona and California, respectively. The Cardinal did manage to break a school record in the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:37.57 that was better than the previous mark of 1:37.71 but still a full second behind Arizona's winning mark of 1:36.71. Fiona O'Donnell-McCarthy, Liz Smith, Elaine Breeden and Brooke Bishop swam on the record-breaking squad.
"Starting off the meet with a school record was definitely a nice way to being the Pac-10 meet," said Stanford head coach Lea Maurer. "We had nice energy and good team focus, and we are looking forward to building upon tonight's performance tomorrow."
Stanford also picked up its first NCAA `A' time of the year with a season-best time of 7:05.70 to finish second behind California (7:04.13). Kate Dwelley, Whitney Spence, Elizabeth Durot and Julia Smit recorded the mark for the Cardinal.
The swimming portion of the Pac-10 Championships continue through Saturday with prelim sessions starting each day at 11 am, PT, followed by finals sessions at 6 pm, PT. The 500 free, 200 IM, 50 free and 200 free relay are scheduled to be contested. The three-day diving meet starts Thursday with 1-meter diving action slated to take place at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, Washington. Diving prelims start at 11 am, PT, with finals to follow at 4 pm, PT.