Courtesy: Stanford Athletics
FEDERAL WAY, Wash.?- They did it again! Another American record. The Stanford women's swimming and diving team has now posted the fastest time in American history in two relays at the Pac-12 Championships. The second of which highlighted a day that featured four individual Pac-12 titles for the Cardinal.
Heading into the final day of competition on Saturday, Stanford is in second place by just five points. The Cardinal have accumulated 946 points through the first three days and trail only USC's 951 points. Cal is currently third with 890.5 points.
Of the five individual events on Friday night at?Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center, Stanford won four of the Pac-12 championships and then won the 400-yard medley relay with an American record-setting time.
"I am really happy with the total team effort today," head coach Greg Meehan said. "Walking away with five wins was great, but it was a great team session. We really stepped up tonight, and to cap it off with an NCAA and American record is special. We are looking forward to the challenge of tomorrow."
Ally Howe?(51.05),?Sarah Haase?(57.73),?Janet Hu?(50.37) and Lia Neal?(47.10) combined for their second American record of the meet. The foursome had already posted the fastest time in U.S. history in the 200-yard medley relay on Wednesday, and they equaled that feat with another record and Pac-12 title. The group finished in 3:26.25 to top the old mark set by a similar group of Cardinal swimmers last year.
Freshman Ella Eastin claimed her second individual conference title with a sub-four-minute finish in the 400 individual medley. She blistered the field with a career-best effort of 3:59.30, and was more than seven seconds better than the runner-up.
Neal tacked on to her many career accolades with another Pac-12 individual title, and Haase continued her dominace in the 100-yard breaststroke. Neal led the 200 free from start-to-finish and won by nearly two full seconds at 1:42.50, while Haase also won comfortably with a career-best of 58.02 -- more than a second better than any other swimmer.
Meanwhile, in the 100-yard backstroke, Howe set a school record and out-touched a pair of Cal swimmers to earn the top spot on the podium. She stopped the clock at 50.71, which was five-hundreths of a second faster than the runner-up and one-tenth of a second better than third place. It also bettered the old Stanford record of 50.89 set by Felicia Lee in 2014.
Wednesday Recap - In the first event of the meet, Stanford's 200-yard medley relay team of Ally Howe (23.62), Sarah Haase (26.20), Janet Hu (22.82) and Lia Neal (21.51) set an American record. In addition, Alex Clay was runner-up in 1-meter diving.
Thursday Recap - Freshman Ella Eastin (200-yard individual medley) and senior Gracia Leydon-Mahoney (3-meter diving) each won individual Pac-12 titles. Eastin posted the seventh-best finish of all-time in the event (1:52.77).
Where to Watch - Pac-12 Networks will broadcast the third day of action on Saturday, and the final day will air Sunday, Feb. 28. Each broadcast will begin at 10 a.m.
Follow the Cardinal - Senior Julia Ama will be taking over the team's snapchat during Pac-12 Championships week. You can follow Cardinal women's swimming and diving on instagram, twitter and snapchat at @StanfordwSwim.
#GoStanford