STANFORD, Calif. - A new season is underway for the Stanford women's swimming & diving program as the 2024-25 slate kicks off with a Triple Distance meet against No. 7 California on Friday at 1 p.m. PT.
A non-team-scoring meet, the Triple Distance Meet splits swimmers into event groups (butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, sprint freestyle, distance freestyle and individual medley) and requires swims at three different distances within the event: 50, 100 and 200 yards in the fly, breast, back and sprint free; 200, 500, 1,000 in the distance free; 100, 200 and 400 in the IM.
RETURNING EXPERIENCE » Stanford brings back all but one student-athlete from a team that finished fifth at the NCAA Championships a season ago, while welcoming back swimmer Torri Huske and diver Maria Papworth. The experienced Cardinal roster houses 13 individual NCAA All-Americans with 66 total All-America honors.
INCOMING CLASS » Stanford welcomes seven new student-athletes arriving on The Farm for the upcoming season, as Lila Heffernan, Anna Lemkin, Bailey O'Regan, Annika Parkhe, Addision Sauickie, Levenia Sim, and Emily Thompson represent the latest Cardinal signing class. "We are thrilled to have these seven amazing young women join the Stanford Women's Swimming & Diving program," said Meehan, Paul A. Violich Director of Women's Swimming and Diving. "This is a talented and athletic group that competes in everything from spring events to IM to distance to diving. More importantly, this group shares the common bonds of curiosity and wanting to make an impact on something greater than themselves. Stanford is the perfect climate to fuel them in and out of the pool, and we can't wait to see what they accomplish here on The Farm."
A NEW ERA IN THE ACC » After building a dynasty in the Pac-12 with 25 team titles, 38 diving titles, 94 relay titles, and 225 individual titles, Stanford now prepares for its inaugural season in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). The ACC is home to seven programs ranked in the CSCAA Women’s Top 25, tied for the most of any conference with the SEC. This group includes fourth-ranked Stanford, as well as No. 1 Virginia, No. 7 California, No. 9 Louisville, No. 11 NC State, No. 15 Duke, No. 18 North Carolina, and No. 22 Virginia Tech. Current members of the ACC have accounted for each of the last seven NCAA championships and 11 of the last 15 national titles.
NCAA SUCCESS CONTINUES » Last season, Stanford capped off the 2023-24 campaign with a fifth-place finish at NCAAs, with 11 different individual swimmers becoming All-Americans. It was the Cardinal's ninth top-five finish under head coach Greg Meehan, as Stanford remained the only program in women's swimming to never finish outside the top ten at a national meet.
TREES IN PARIS » The Cardinal women's swimming and diving program was well represented at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, claiming 17 of Stanford's 39 overall medals. Torri Huske enjoyed a breakthrough Olympics campaign with five medals (3 Gold, 2 Silver), claiming the top step of the podium in the 100m butterfly, 400m medley relay, and 400m mixed medley relay. Alum Katie Ledecky won four medals (2 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze) to become the most decorated American female Olympian of all time in any sport with 14 overall. Simone Manuel won a pair of silver medals in the 400m and 800m freestyle relay, while Kassidy Cook earned silver in the 3m synchronized springboard.
NATIONAL TEAM NOMINATIONS » USA Swimming, the National Governing Body of the sport of swimming in the United States, announced a roster of 106 swimmers named to the U.S. National Team in early September, with three Cardinal earning nominations - Lucy Bell, Torri Huske, and Aurora Roghair. The trio of Stanford student-athletes were selected based on results from the 2024 Paris Olympic Games and times from January 1 through August 24, 2024. For Huske, it is her fifth time being named to the U.S. National Team, while Bell and Roghair are both first-time selections.
WILLIAMS RETURNS HOME » A cornerstone of Stanford's three-peat run from 2017-19 returned to The Farm during the offseason, as Kim Williams '19 was announced as the newest member of the Stanford coaching staff. Decorated in her career as a student-athlete for Stanford, Williams led Stanford to three consecutive NCAA and Pac-12 Championships from 2017-19, including being named team captain of the 2019 title-winning squad. Individually, Williams was a member of two national championship 400 medley relay teams and won another NCAA title in the 200 medley relay, garnering a total of six NCAA All-America honors in her career. Williams joins the Cardinal staff after one season with California where she helped lead the Golden Bears to their sixth Pac-12 title in program history. Prior to her time in Berkeley, Williams spent a season as a volunteer assistant at Northwestern under the tutelage of current Stanford associate head coach Katie Robinson.