Next Up: NCAA's

No. 1 Stanford (8-0, 7-0 Pac-12)
 NCAA Championships | March 14-17
McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion | Columbus, Ohio
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STANFORD, Calif. - No. 1 Stanford will send 17 swimmers and two divers to defend its national title at the NCAA Championships, March 14-17, in Columbus, Ohio. The Cardinal has won more national championships than any other program (nine NCAA and one AIWA), and is looking for its first back-to-back titles since winning five straight from 1992-96.

NCAA NOTES: Stanford's swimmer-by-swimmer breakdown, a full day-by-day schedule, school records and season notables can be found here.

SCHEDULE: See Stanford's full day-by-day schedule below.

WATCH: You can find a live stream for most events here. ESPNU and the Watch ESPN app will provide coverage of Friday and Saturday night finals.

LOTS OF TREES: Stanford's 20 NCAA qualifiers was the most in the nation, and over the NCAA roster limit of 18 (divers count as half) so the Cardinal will send 17 swimmers and two divers. Stanford's other qualifier was freshman Katie Glavinovich in the 400 individual medley (4:09.26). The Cardinal sent 16 to the NCAA meet last year when they took home the title, and 13 traveled to Atlanta in 2016 (10 swimmers, three divers) when Stanford finished as the national runner-up. In addition, Stanford has an additional 10 swims from last year – the Cardinal had 42 individual entries in 2017 (and 25 swims in 2016).

?? #GoStanford pic.twitter.com/oT1oTLDNCk

— Stanford WSwim/Dive (@stanfordwswim) February 28, 2018

YOUNG TREES: It will be a fairly young NCAA squad for Stanford as more than half of the roster will be underclassmen—five freshmen and five sophomores. But it will also be an experienced group as the 13 non-freshmen qualifiers have all been to the NCAA's before, and won a national title. In addition, the five seniors at this meet have combined for 56 All-America honors over the past three seasons.

TOP TREES: Stanford has an individual favorite in seven of the 13 swimming events, and is the favorite in one relay. The Cardinal owns the top seed in all five freestyle events (Simone Manuel in the 50, 100 and 200, and Katie Ledecky in the 500 and 1650) as well as all three events in which Stanford set an American record at the Pac-12 Championships—200 fly (Ella Eastin), 400 IM (Ledecky) and 400 medley relay. Janet Hu is the second seed in the 100 and 200 back.

NCAA TEAM HISTORY: The Cardinal has registered 37 straight top-eight finishes (every year the NCAA has sponsored a championship meet), and 13 top-five showings in the last 14 years. Stanford has won the NCAA title nine times, the most of any team in the nation, and won an AIAW title in 1980. Under head coach Greg Meehan, Stanford finished eighth (2013), second (2014), third (2015) and second (2016) before snapping the program's 19-year title drought at the national championship meet last year.

LAST YEAR: At the 2017 NCAA Championships in Indianapolis, Indiana, Stanford claimed its first national championship since 1998. The Cardinal had 13 different All-Americans combine for 47 All-America honors, seven individual national championships and three relay titles at IUPUI Natatorium. The Cardinal's 526.5 points were the most for the program since 1993 (649.5). Cal finished second with 366 points—the largest margin of victory at the NCAA Championships since 2003.

Back on top

National Champions ??#GoStanford ?? pic.twitter.com/SyRD0LzwMq

— Stanford WSwim/Dive (@stanfordwswim) March 19, 2017

PAC-12 CHAMPIONS: Stanford claimed back-to-back Pac-12 titles for the first time since 2010-11 and won the conference meet for the 21st time overall, a record. 
» The top-ranked Cardinal's 1,776.5 points were the second-most ever scored at the Pac-12 Championships—only eclipsed by the 1,804 points scored by Stanford's 1992 national championship team that famously featured several Olympians, including Summer Sanders and Jenny Thompson. Cal finished as the runner-up with 1,487 points. It is the largest margin of victory (317 points) at the Pac-12 meet since Stanford outscored runner-up USC by 356 in 1999. 
» Over the four-day meet, the top-ranked Cardinal won nine of 21 events, including three American records. Ella Eastin broke the oldest standing American and NCAA record (Elaine Breeden, 2009) with her swim of 1:49.51 in the 200 butterfly. Ally Howe, Kim Williams, Janet Hu and Simone Manuel broke Stanford's two-year-old American/NCAA record in the 400-medley relay (3:25.15). Sophomore Katie Ledecky, who won three individual Pac-12 titles and set the NCAA/American records in the 400 individual medley, was named Swimmer of the Meet for the second straight year.  

???? #GoStanford

A post shared by Stanford W. Swimming (@stanfordwswim) on Feb 25, 2018 at 9:10am PST

REGULAR SEASON RECAP: Stanford finished the regular season unbeaten and atop the polls for the third straight season. Stanford, which finished second to the host Aggies at the Texas A&M Art Adamson Invitational in mid-November, had notable dual meet wins over N.C. State, USC and Cal. 

STREAKS: Stanford has won 23 straight dual meets. The Cardinal's last defeat in a dual was to No. 3 Cal on Feb. 14, 2015—which also marks a string of 21 straight Pac-12 dual meet victories since that loss. The Cardinal has also won 16 straight dual meets at home dating back to Oct. 30, 2014 against Texas (156-144).

NERD NATION: Stanford owns the highest team GPA in the Pac-12 at 3.59. Senior Janet Hu, a computer science major with a biocomputation focus and a 3.31 GPA, was named the Pac-12 Scholar Athlete of the Year. Hu is the third Cardinal to earn this honor, joining Kelsey Ditto in 2010-11 and Andrea Axtell in 2008-09. 

CARDINAL IN THE COMMUNITY: At the dual meet against Cal, the Cardinal collected donations and raised more than $2,000 for Stanford's Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.

SOCIAL SCENE: Several different Cardinal will take over the team's instagram account during the conference championship weekend. You can follow Cardinal women's swimming and diving all year long on instagram, twitter and snapchat (@StanfordwSwim). 
 

#GoStanford