Felicia Lee won three events for Stanford and Ting Quah took three victories for UCLA, but the #5 Cardinal had too much depth for the home Bruins (#17 in our power rankings) to overcome, winning 180-120.
Quah won two of her three races over the top of Stanford stars Maya DiRado and Lia Neal, a definite moral victory in a night otherwise dominated by Stanford.
Lee swept the backstrokes, going 53.35 and 1:56.75 to run away with things in the 100 and 200. She also added a 200 IM win (2:00.42) late and swam butterfly on the winning 200 medley relay.
That medley was a 1-2 sweep for Stanford, which appeared to somewhat split its relays, putting DiRado on the B where she posted the fastest backstroke split. The A squad was Annemarie Thayer, Katie Olsen, Lee and Maddy Schaefer, who combined for a 1:40.10 with a big 27.4 from Olsen on breaststroke. Though the event stung UCLA points-wise, the silver lining was that freshman Linnea Mack went 25.7 leading off, just a few hundredths slower than DiRado.
Olsen stayed hot in the breaststrokes, winning the 100 with a 1:01.19 and took the 200 easily with a 2:12.61. Andie Taylor was another big Stanford contributor, setting the tone early by winning a stroke-for-stroke battle with UCLA’s Lauren Baker in the 1000 free to open the individual events. Taylor was 9:50.44 to Baker’s 9:51.96.
Quah had an outstanding day, matching up with two of the most dangerous swimmers in the NCAA and coming out on top both times. The UCLA senior took on Lia Neal in the 200 free and Maya DiRado in the 100 fly – her 1:48.51 beat Neal’s 1:48.65 and she topped DiRado and Nicole Stafford in the fly with a 54.00.
Quah also added a runaway 100 free win in 50.51.
The other Bruin win came from senior diver Paulina Guzman, who scored 312.90 in 3-meter diving.
Other than that, though, it was all Stanford. DiRado picked up a 200 fly win with a 1:57.77, beating out UCLA’s Katie Kinnear by a few tenths. Maddy Schaefer rolled to a 22.85 50 free win with Lia Neal second, and Stephanie Phipps won 1-meter diving with a score of 28261.25.
Though the meet was already decided by the final event, UCLA showed a lot of guts and a never-say-die attitude, pulling the 400 free relay into a dogfight. Lia Neal grabbed a two-tenth leadoff lead over Ting Quah, going 50.29, and Maddy Schaefer went 49.99 to increase the Stanford lead to a half-second. But Kathryn Murphy kept things close for UCLA before anchor Monica Dornick made up nearly the full half-second in the waning yards of the relay. But Stanford’s Julia Anderson managed to get her hand on the wall first, giving the Cardinal a win 3:21.54 to 3:21.61.
Things don’t get any easier for UCLA, which will take on the visiting #1 Cal Golden Bears tomorrow. Stanford will have a top-ten challenge of their own when they take on #6 USC on the road.
