Jan. 23, 2009
TEMPE, Ariz. - The No. 2 Stanford women's swimming and diving team (16-0, 3-0 Pac-10) kicked off the home stretch of its 2008-09 season with a 167.5-113.5 victory over host Arizona State (1-5, 1-4) this afternoon in a Pacific-10 Conference dual meet held at the Mona Plummer Aquatic Center. The meet was contested in a 25-yard short course format, and featured 14 swimming and two diving events.
With today's victory, the Cardinal women have won 15 straight Pac-10 dual meets, and have defeated 37 of its last 38 opponents in head-to-head competition.
Stanford's well-rounded effort included seven athletes combining for nine event victories, including junior Carmen Stellar's sweep of both diving competitions. Counting the event winners, the Cardinal had 22 total athletes score in today's meet before swimming exhibitions in the final two events.
Freshman Jessica Rodriquez got the Cardinal started in the second event - a two-person 1,000 free competition - by touching the wall in 10:12.14 to defeat her opponent by over 11 seconds. Stanford swimmers then captured 31 points over the next two events, as sophomore Kate Dwelley won a tightly-contested 200 free in an NCAA "B" time of 1:48.14 and junior Julia Smit finished first in the 100 back with a "B" standard of 54.38. Freshman Sam Woodward (1:48.58) and junior Caitlin Reynolds (1:53.45) finished second and fourth, respectively, in the 200 free. Juniors Kelley Hug (56.59) and Stefanie Sutton (56.69) rounded out the top three of the 100 back.
Smit won a total of three individual events, also taking a pair of freestyle events in NCAA "B" times (22.73 in the 50 and 4:48.51 in the 500). Freshman Sam Woodward gave Stanford a sweep of the individual freestyle competitions by swimming to victory in the 100 free (50.38).
Hug and sophomore Liz Smith helped ice the victory for Stanford in the ninth and 12th events. Hug held off the field to win the 200 back in 2:02.02, while Smith's time of 54.81 gave her a tie for first in the 100 fly.
The rest of the individual Cardinal scoring came courtesy of junior Elaine Breeden (2nd - 1:05.06) and freshman Jamie Bruce (4th - 1:05.26) in the 100 breast; junior Whitney Spence (2nd - 2:03.57), freshman Charlotte Naylor (3rd - 2:06.36) and freshman Angela Duckworth (4th - 2:07.72) in the 200 fly; freshman Betsy Webb (2nd - 23.52) and Hug (5th - 24.31) in the 50 free; Breeden (2nd - 50.97) and Smith (3rd - 51.43) in the 100 free; junior Meredith Ayres (3rd - 2:02.96) and Bruce (4th - 2:03.61) in the 200 back; Rodriquez (2nd - 2:22.59) in the 200 breast; Duckworth (2nd - 4:54.82) and Reynolds (3rd - 5:03.71) in the 500 free; and junior Nilasha Ghosh (3rd - 55.46) and senior Laura Wadden (4th - 55.89) in the 100 fly. Stanford's "B" 200 medley relay (Sutton, Bruce, Hug and senior Madeline Rovira) finished second, while the "A" foursome (Wadden, Smith, Woodward and Webb) finished third.
Stellar continued an outstanding season by winning both the 1- and 3-meter diving competitions with "A" Zone qualifying scores. The junior tallied a 285.68 on the 1-meter and a 288.15 on the 3-meter.
Sophomore Meg Hostage also tallied an "A" score of 267.53 to finish second on the 1-meter, while she placed third with a 275.70 on the 3-meter. Freshman Mary Beth Corbett had a strong "B" score of 279.53 to finish second in the 3-meter competition, while Sarah Ohr placed third in the 1-meter with a 250.35.
Stanford will be right back in the pool tomorrow morning, when the Cardinal travels to Tucson to face seventh-ranked and defending national champion Arizona in a Pac-10 dual meet. Saturday's competition begins at 11 a.m. Pacific.
Kelley Hug won the 200 back and scored in four events during Friday's meet |