True freshman Ella Eastin lead the way with two big individual wins, as the Stanford women took down their Pac-12 rival Arizona State 176-63. The Cardinal won all but two events (the 200 freestyle and 1-meter diving), highlighted by Eastin’s 4:09.01 400 IM and 1-2-3 finishes in the four different individual events.
Stanford started off the meet with back-to-back 1-2 finishes in the 1000 freestyle–with Allison Brown and Leah Stevens finishing in 9:57.41 and 10:02.34, respectively–and 400 medley relay, which was highlighted by a very quick 52.95 leadoff leg from Janet Hu.
The Sun Devils rebounded with a 1-3 finish in the 200 free, with Kat Simonovic (1:49.70) holding off a hard-charging Ally Howe (1:49.76) for the win. Simonovic would later come back for second place in the 200 fly (2:05.06) As Chris Desantis stated in his recap of the men’s meet, Bob Bowman and his staff have put together some nice results so far, and will be looking to recruiting to build on a young, up-and-coming team.
Stanford quickly retook control from ASU and didn’t let up, with seven different athletes winning individual events the rest of the way. Lia Neal and Janet Hu started it off with a 1-2 in the 50 free, touching in 22.83 and 22.84. Eastin chipped in with two wins of her own, including that 4:09.01 in the 400 IM. She would come back later to win the 500 in 4:48.92.
Also winning events for the Cardinal were junior Tara Halsted (women’s 200 fly, 2:00.17) and a trio of swimmers from Stanford’s highly-touted sophomore class, with Janet Hu winning the 100 free, Ally Howe winning the 200 back, and Heidi Poppe taking the 200 breaststroke. Stanford may be one swimmer away from a title this year (say, Simone Manuel of Katie Ledecky), but their sophomore class will be huge for their championship prospects going forward.
Arizona State also captured the 1-meter diving, behind a 293.70-point effort from sophomore Mara Aiacoboae, narrowly clipping Stanford senior Alex Clay (291.83).
Both teams are back in action today, with the Cardinal hosting the Arizona Wildcats, and ASU heading over to Berkeley to take on the Cal Bears.
