March 20, 2008
2008 NCAA Championships WebsiteLive Results
Dana Kirk's NCAA Championships Blog -- Entry #2 (Thu., March 20)
Results: Finals | Prelims
Columbus, Ohio - Stanford is in fifth place after Friday's first day of the 2008 NCAA Women's Swimming and Diving Championships being held on the campus of The Ohio State University. Arizona leads the field after the first day of competition with 151 points and is followed by two-time defending champion Auburn (132), California (89), Texas A&M (88) and Stanford (80) to round out the top five schools in the team standings.
Julia Smit's fourth place finish in the 200 IM in a time of 1:55.31 was Stanford's top individual performance during Thursday night's finals session. The Cardinal also had the top three swimmers in the consolation finals of the 200 IM with Elaine Breeden taking ninth (1:56.30), Kate Dwelley (1:57.27) finishing 10th and Liz Smith placing 11th (1:57.45) all with personal-best marks. Smit was a touch faster during Thursday's prelim session when she broke her own school record in the event by recording a 1:54.97 mark to earn the top qualifier spot. Breeden remained No. 4 all-tjme at Stanford with her finals time, while Dwelley's moved up to No. 5 on Stanford's all-time list and Smith is now right behind her at No. 6.
Brooke Bishop was 10th overall in the 50 free (22.27), while Meg Hostage took 13th in the 1-meter diving competition (283.30).
Stanford managed a third place showing in the 400 medley relay that ended the session when a foursome of Smit (53.87), Caroline Bruce (1:00.08), Breeden (51.44) and Bishop (48.38) recorded a time of 3:33.77 after the Cardinal had barely snuck in the finals session by taking eighth in the morning prelims.
"We all sat together before our race and decided to show everyone what Stanford was all about," offered Bishop. "Being in lane eight was a motivator, and we got really fired up. I feel like we are taking a lot of positive momentum into tomorrow."
The Cardinal desperately needed the performance by the 400 medley relay squad after suffering a costly disqualification in the 200 free relay championship finals to start the session after qualifying third in the event in the morning prelims when the Cardinal set a new school record with a time of 1:28.59 accomplished by a team of Dwelley (22.54), Smit (21.78), Breeden (22.38) and Bishop (21.89).
Other participants competing for Stanford during Thursday's prelim session included Whitney Spence (21st, 4:45.09) and Elizabeth Durot (37th-T, 4:47.63) in the 500 free, Shana Karp (30th, 243.85) and Sarah Ohr (36th, 231.25) in 1-meter diving, and Fiona O'Donnell-McCarthy (33rd, 22.85) in the 50 free.
Thursday's individual event winners were Florida's Caroline Burckle (500 free, 4:33.60), Auburn's Ava Ohlgren (200 IM, 1:53.94), Arizona's Lara Jackson (50 free, 21.69) and Hawaii's Emma Friesen (1-meter diving, 336.20). Burckle broke 18-year-old NCAA and NCAA Meet records established by former Stanford swimmer Janet Evans in 1990.
Arizona set new NCAA, NCAA Meet, American and US Open records to win both relays contested. Jackson (21.92), Lacey Nymeyer (21.46), Anna Turner (21.83) and Taylor Baughman (21.69) went 1:26.90 in the 200 free relay to open the session before Hailey Degolia (51.67), Annie Chandler (58.32), Ana Agy (52.06) and Nymeyer (47.01) clocked a 3:29.06 to end the evening.
The three-day meet will continue on Friday with prelims (11 am, ET) and finals (7 pm, ET) sessions. The eight events to be contested on Friday include the 200 medley relay, 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast, 100 back, 3-meter diving and 800 free relay.
"We showed a ton of heart," said Stanford head women's swimming and diving coach Lea Maurer. "I couldn't be more proud of our team, and I hope we fight like this for the next four sessions."