Stanford's foursome of Simone Manuel (46.47), Katie Ledecky (48.10), Janet Hu (47.49) and Lia Neal (46.45) closed the books on Stanford's Pacific 12 Championship team title with an NCAA and American record in the women's 400-yard free relay.
The quartet posted a 3:08.51 to clear the 3:08.54 set by Stanford at the 2015 NCAA Championships.
That team of Neal (46.84), Hu (47.98), Lindsey Engel (47.93) and Manuel (45.79) raced to the record in Greensboro, N.C.
Event 21 Women 400 Yard Freestyle Relay
==================================================================================
School Seed Finals Points
==================================================================================
1 STAN-PC 'A' 3:12.55 3:08.51 64
1) Manuel, Simone SO 2) Ledecky, Katie FR
3) Hu, Janet JR 4) Neal, Lia SR
22.38 46.47 23.37 48.10
22.49 47.49 22.32 46.45
The swim delivered the final points to Stanford as the Cardinal won with 1587.5 points. California took second with 1392 points, while USC was third with 1250.5 points.
Arizona (1075.5), UCLA (1002), Arizona State (709.5), Utah (484), Washington State (334) and Oregon State (237) also competed during the meet.
For the 20th time in program history, Stanford is the Pac-12 champion.
After three straight runner-up finishes, the Stanford women's swimming and diving team finished atop the conference for the first time since 2013 on Saturday night. The Cardinal garnered 1,587 points to top runner-up Cal's 1,392 points and USC, which finished third with 1,250 points.
It was a fitting ending. In the final event of the meet, Stanford added another American record – the fifth of the meet for the Cardinal. In all, Stanford won 15 of the 21 events, and freshman Katie Ledecky was named Swimmer of the Meet.
Simone Manuel, Ledecky, Janet Hu and Lia Neal are now the fastest combination in American history to complete the 400-yard freestyle relay. The foursome's finish of 3:08.51 was also an NCAA record. It completed a Stanford sweep of all five relays at the meet.
Manuel also claimed an individual title on Saturday. The Sugar Land, Texas, native completed the sweep of the freestyle sprints with a win in the 100. She finished 1-2 with senior teammate Lia Neal. Manuel touched the wall at 46.36 and Neal finished in 46.97. Earlier in the week, Manuel won Pac-12 titles in the 50 and 200 free.
Follow
Stanford WSwim/Dive @stanfordwswim
.@simone_manuel wins #Pac12Swim title in the 100 free and goes 1-2 with @lianeal! #GoStanford
7:51 PM - 25 Feb 2017
13 13 Retweets 65 65 likes
Sophomore Ella Eastin won her second individual Pac-12 championship of the week with a victory in the 200 butterfly. Her finish of 1:51.85 clinched her fifth career individual Pac-12 title.
Freshman Megan Byrnes began the night in winning style for the Cardinal. She claimed the Pac-12 title in the 1,650 free with a finish of 15:47.62 – third-fastest in school history. Only Ledecky and Janet Evans have been faster. Sophomore Leah Stevens was second with the fourth-fastest finish all-time at Stanford (15:57.87).
Hu set a school record as the runner-up in the 200 backstroke. She bested her own Stanford mark as the first Cardinal to break 1:50 in the event. She stopped the clock at 1:49.36, while teammate Ally Howe was third at 1:51.16, Allie Szekely was fifth (1:51.76) and Erin Voss (1:53.25) was sixth.
