FEDERAL WAY, Wash. -- Sarah Haase won the 100-yard breaststroke and the Stanford women’s swimming and diving team had eight individual sixth place or better showings Friday at the Pac-12 Championships at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center. California leads Stanford, 1,088.5-954, headed to the final day tomorrow.
"The team had another really strong showing today," said head coach Greg Meehan. "It was great to have wins by Saqrah Haase in the breast and to finish the session with a win in the relay, but all around I'm really, really proud of our effort."
Haase, a junior human biology major, clocked an A-cut and the No. 2 time in Stanford history by stopping the clock at 58.60. She outraced UCLA’s Allison Wine in second (59.75) and freshman teammate Heidi Poppe in third (1:00.15).
Only Tara Kirk has been faster in the 100 breaststroke wearing a Cardinal cap. Kirk swam a 58.41 in 2003.
Katie Olsen, the defending Pac-12 champion in the event, rounded out the Cardinal in the 100 breaststroke A final with sixth place (1:00.61).
Stanford also won the final event of the night, the 400-yard medley relay, to walk away from Day 3 with a pair of first-place finishes. Haase, Janet Hu, Ally Howe and Simone Manuel combined to beat Cal, 3:29.56-3:30.21. No other school was within three seconds of the Bay Area rivals.
In one of the most highly anticipated events of the weekend, Missy Franklin edged Manuel, a freshman, in the 200-yard freestyle. Manuel produced what would have been a Pac-12 record 1:41.15 if Franklin had not gone 1:41.09. The Sugar Land, Texas, native tried to come back on the Cal sophomore, beating her 25.25-25.67, in the final 25, but Franklin held off Manuel to take the conference record previously held by Dana Vollmer’s 1:41.53 in 2009.
Lia Neal was sixth in the 200 free at 1:43.88, an A-cut qualifying mark. Stanford also picked up points from Grace Carlson in 14th (1:46.52) and Julia Anderson in 20th (1:47.83) in the event that had 21 student-athletes post NCAA standard times.
Tara Halsted got the night started by earning third in the 400-yard IM in 4:12.75. She had qualified for the A final with a personal best 4:12.11 during the morning session.
Hu and freshman classmate Lindsey Engel followed Halsted by claiming fifth and seventh, respectively, in the 100-yard butterfly. Hu was to the wall in 51.93, while Engel touched at 52.57. Hu’s time beat her 52.07 from the Art Adamson Invitational for seventh all-time in Stanford’s record book.
Kassidy Cook was second in the one-meter diving competition (347.55), behind Arizona's Samantha Pickens (351.55). The Cardinal placed three divers in the top eight.
"[Diving coach] Patrick Jeffrey and our diving corps has been awesome," added Meehan. "Another great showing today."
The fourth and final day kicks off at 11 a.m. P.T. tomorrow with preliminaries and finals for the 1650-yard freestyle, 200-yard backstroke, 200-yard breaststroke, 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard butterfly in addition to the prelims and semifinals for the men’s and women’s platform drives. Wrapping up the 2014 championships is the 400-free relay, after which the Pac-12 Champion will be crowned.
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