The No. 2 Stanford women’s swimming and diving team started its final home weekend of the 2014-15 season with a 151-92 win over No. 17 UCLA Friday afternoon at sunny Avery Aquatic Center. Sophomore swimmer Lia Neal, sophomore diver Kassidy Cook and freshman swimmer Ally Howe carried the Cardinal with two individual wins apiece.
“Overall, I just think our energy was really good today,” said head coach Greg Meehan. “It was nice to be at home, unbelievable day outside, against a really good UCLA team. It was a heightened sense of competition.”
Neal won the 100-yard freestyle (49.52) and the 200-yard version of the same event (1:48.22), while Howe took the 200-yard IM (2:01.23) and the 200-yard backstroke (1:57.05) to spark nine individual wins for Stanford. Freshman Simone Manuel, who was featured by the San Francisco Chronicle in Friday’s paper, won the 50-yard freestyle (22.41), classmate Janet Hu took the 200-yard butterfly (1:57.12) and junior human biology major Sarah Haase claimed the 200-yard breaststroke (2:13.26).
The Cardinal also registered three individual second-place showings - Hu in the 50 free, Alex Clay off the 1-meter board and freshman Heidi Poppe in the 200 back - to run away with the meet. Clay was eight points behind Cook in the 1-meter, before Cook, a standout sophomore, won the 3-meter by more than three points.
“They did a great job today across the board,” diving coach Patrick Jeffrey said of his group. “Kassidy in particular looked good, but I thought we had solid performances out of Kelly (Markle) and Alex (Clay).”
Stanford also dominated the relays to no surprise. The 400-yard medley relay started the meet by winning with more than three seconds to spare and the 400-yard freestyle relay squad won by one one-hundredth short of six seconds to end the day.
Junior Katy Campbell led UCLA with wins in the 1,000-yard freestyle (10:02.47) and 500-yard freestyle (4:52.83).
The Cardinal returns to Avery Aquatic Center tomorrow for “Senior Day” against No. 14 USC. The Trojans fell, 197.5-102.5, to No. 3 California Friday afternoon.
“I am very excited about honoring Sloane Brazina and the rest of the seniors,” Jeffrey said. “Sloane is having a great year and I’m looking forward to seeing her dive tomorrow.”
“I like to sit back on Senior Day and watch them perform for the last time here at Avery in front of the home crowd,” Meehan added. “It’s a really neat experience. And we have our hands full with USC so we have to be ready to go.”
