Stanford Redeems Last Year’s Narrow Loss, Wins NCAA Team Title

2017 WOMEN’S NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS

The Stanford Cardinal fulfilled all expectations at the 2017 Women’s NCAA DI Championships tonight, winning the team title by 160.5 points. They took the title with 526.5 points to second-place Cal’s 366 points. With that result, the Cardinal redeemed their narrow 19-point loss to the Georgia Bulldogs from last season.

To say that this meet was historic for Stanford would be an understatement. The team, coached by Greg Meehan in his fifth season, came away with six NCAA records, five American records, eight gold medals, one silver medal, and three bronze medals.

Leading the way for the Cardinal this weekend were freshman Katie Ledeckysophomore Simone Manuel, and sophomore Ella Eastin

Ledecky picked up three American records (800 free relay, 500 free, 400 free relay), four NCAA records (800 free relay, 500 free, 1650 free, 400 free relay), and five gold medals (800 free relay, 500 free, 1650 free, 200 free). Manuel took three American records (800 free relay, 100 free, 400 free relay), four NCAA records (800 free relay, 50 free, 100 free, 400 free relay), four gold medals (800 free relay, 50 free, 100 free), and two bronze medals (200 free, 200 medley relay). Eastin had one American record (800 free relay), two golds (400 IM, 200 fly) and one silver (200 IM).

The biggest swims of the weekend for Stanford included a record-smashing 6:45.91 800 free relay, an American record 4:24.0 500 free from Ledecky, an NCAA record 21.17 50 free from Manuel, a gold-medal 200 free tie for the 2nd-fastest swim in history from Ledecky, a gold-medal American record 400 IM from Ella Eastin, a gold medal 200 fly from Ella Eastin, the first 100 free swim under 46 in history from Simone Manuel, an NCAA meet record 1650 free from Katie Ledecky, and an American record 3:07.61 400 free relay.

The full team roster for the 2016-2017 Stanford national champions is below:

  • Bridget Boushka, senior
  • Hannah Boyd, freshman
  • Brickelle Bro, sophomore
  • Megan Byrnes, freshman
  • Kassidy Cook, diving
  • Katie Drabot, freshman
  • Ella Eastin, sophomore
  • Lindsey Engel, junior
  • Haley Farnsworth, freshman
  • Sammy Gallagher, junior
  • Tara Halsted, senior
  • Ally Howe, junior
  • Janet Hu, junior
  • Katie Ledecky, freshman
  • Gracia Leydon Mahoney, junior
  • Simone Manuel, junior
  • Alexandra Meyers, junior
  • Lia Neal, senior
  • Heidi Poppe, junior
  • Nicole Stafford, senior
  • Brooke Stenstrom, freshman
  • Leah Stevens, sophomore
  • Allie Szekely, freshman
  • Erin Voss, freshman
  • Kim Williams, sophomore

This is Stanford’s ninth team win in history, coming a full 21 years after their previous national title. The last time the Cardinal won the team trophy was in 1996, led by individual titles from Jessica Tong and Claudia Franco.

With this win, Stanford extends their lead as the winningest team in history with 9 NCAA title wins added to 1 in the AIAW (an NCAA predecessor for women’s athletics). Texas and Georgia have seven team titles apiece, and Auburn has five. Here are all the times Stanford has won the team title:

  • 1983 (George Haines): 505 points
  • 1989 (Richard Quick): 610.5 points
  • 1992 (Richard Quick): 735.5 points
  • 1993 (Richard Quick): 649.5 points
  • 1994 (Richard Quick): 512 points
  • 1995 (Richard Quick): 497.5 points
  • 1996 (Richard Quick): 478 points
  • 1998 (Richard Quick: 422 points
  • 2017 (Greg Meehan): 526.5 points

You can see this weekend’s final team scores below:

Combined Team Scores - Through Event 21                      
 
  1. Stanford                        526.5   2. California                        366
  3. Texas A&M                       292.5   4. Georgia                         252.5
  5. Texas                             252   6. Louisville                      194.5
  7. NC State                          194   8. Indiana                           185
  9. Southern Cali                     176  10. Minnesota                         168
 11. Michigan                          159  12. Virginia                          149
 13. Missouri                          135  14. Kentucky                          106
 15. Wisconsin                          98  16. Arizona                          89.5
 17. UNC                                73  18. Auburn                             55
 19. Ohio St                            52  20. UCLA                               48
 21. Northwestern                       40  22. Tennessee                          35
 23. Purdue                             33  24. Umbc (W)                           30
 25. Miami (Oh)                         29  26. Iowa                               26
 27. Nevada                             25  28. Florida St                         24
 29. Arizona St                         22  30. Denver                             20
 31. Virginia Tech                      18  32. Florida Int'l                      16
 33. Nebraska                           15  34. Lsu                                14
 35. Cincinnati                         12  36. Boise St                           10
 36. Penn St                            10  38. South Carolina                      8
 39. Miami (Fl)                          5  39. Air Force (W)                       5
 41. Pittsburgh                          4  41. Florida Gulf                        4
 43. Alabama                           3.5  44. Notre Dame                          2
 44. San Diego State University          2  44. Massachusetts                       2
 47. Duke                                1  47. Drexel                              1
 47. Rutgers                             1

In This Story

13
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

13 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Swim Mom Yo
7 years ago

It was fun to be there. Amazing swims by all.

bobo gigi
7 years ago

Congrats to Stanford girls and the coaches. It was expected but you never know what can happen.

Francene
7 years ago

Correction to the article: Randy Reese never coached at Stanford. The coach in 1983 was George Haines, not Randy Reese.

ThatSwimKid
7 years ago

Odd statistic, Alabama Women scored 3.5 points and Florida Women didn’t even score. Looks like the focus has solely been on the men’s teams there. Not a fan or against either team, just sad to see a combined program fall so far on one side.

swimfan18
7 years ago

Lia Neal & Simone Manuel’s friendship is so inspiring. Lia cried after Simone won in Rio and now Simone is crying for Lia after her last swim. They both made me cry.

ADSF
Reply to  swimfan18
7 years ago

Wonderful friendship these two have. Thank you Lia for being a great leader, teammate and friend over 4 years to these ladies. You will continue to set excellent example of being a student-athlete at a high level. You are inspirational to all young girls out there. Good luck for the new chapter of your life after Stanford.

ADSF
7 years ago

Congratulations on he national championship! Great all-around team effort!

Know It All
7 years ago

Texas WSD twitter bio claims they have 9 national championship wins. Does this mean Stanford is actually tied with them for most, not actually having the most?

Admin
Reply to  Know It All
7 years ago

Know It All – Texas’ count of 9 includes 2 AIAW Championships, which was the governing body for women’s sports before the NCAA recognized them. If we’re counting AIAW titles, this would actually be Stanford’s 10th, so either way you look at it, they’ve got the most.

Interestingly, if we count AIAW titles, Arizona State ranks 3rd with 8 – all of which were from the pre-NCAA era.

Bevo
Reply to  Braden Keith
7 years ago

That’s actually a great statistic on the titles. Remember Mona and all that she did!
I think it’s close between Texas and Stanford when you look at men’s and women’s swimming and diving titles.

AvidSwimFan
7 years ago

CONGRATULATIONS!!! The phone book said it, and you did it.

About Hannah Hecht

Hannah Hecht

Hannah Hecht grew up in Kansas and spent most of her childhood trying to convince coaches to let her swim backstroke in freestyle sets. She took her passion to Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa and swam at NAIA Nationals all four years. After graduating in 2015, she moved to …

Read More »