KAZAN, Russia -- Stanford graduate Maya DiRado won her first World Championships individual medal Sunday, taking silver in the 400-meter IM, as the 2015 FINA World Championships concluded. Rising sophomore Simone Manuel swam the freestyle leg of Team USA’s fourth place 400-meter medley relay and was eighth in the 50-meter freestyle final.
DiRado, a management science and engineering major from the Class of 2014, cut nearly five seconds off her prelim time to finish the final in 4:31.71. Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu led the entire way to win gold in 4:30.39, just .07 off of her own World Championships meet record.
DiRado, Hosszu and bronze medalist Emily Overholt of Canada (4:32.52) were well ahead of the rest of the pack. Only Hosszu and Overholt finished within three seconds of DiRado and Great Britain’s Hannah Miley (4:34.79) was the only other swimmer to come within five seconds of the former Cardinal star.
Manuel’s day started with the tightly contested 50 free. The seven-time NCAA All-American Manuel was 0.45 seconds behind gold medalist Bronte Campbell of Australia (24.12) and 0.26 seconds off of the podium, which included Ranomi Kromowidjojo of the Netherlands (24.22) and Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom (24.31).
In the final event of the meet, Manuel split 53.39 for the 400-meter medley relay team. She was joined by Missy Franklin, Jessica Hardy and Kendyl Stewart, as the group finished in 3:56.76. Team USA missed the top three by 1.20 seconds and was 2.35 seconds behind the gold-medal winning Chinese team.
Future Stanford swimmer Katie Ledecky was named the Swimmer of the Meet at the conclusion of the events. Ledecky, who plans to enroll at Stanford following the 2016 Olympics, became the first woman in history to win four individual gold medals at a World Championships meet.