USC V. STANFORD
- February 2, 2019
- Stanford, CA
- Results
- Scores: Stanford 187, USC 107
It was senior day for the Stanford women, as they hosted the USC Trojans in a Pac-12 match-up. The Cardinal did not mess around today, as they dropped incredible dual meet times left and right and started to exhibition most of their swimmers after the 1st diving break.
Chief among the Stanford women was senior Ella Eastin, who was tremendous in her three events. She has been swimming a lot of backstroke this season, and she posted a 52.51 to win the 100 back and a 1:52.35 to win the 200 back, with teammate Erin Voss going 53.59 and 1:53.92 to take 2nd behind her in both, respectively. Her 100 back was less than a second off of her lifetime best, a 51.64 from November at their mid-season invite, while her 200 back was two seconds better than her old best, a 1:54.93 from Stanford’s dual meet with Arizona in January.
Eastin then raced the 200 IM, going 1:55.36 to finish well ahead of Allie Szekely, who had an impressive swim of her own (1:57.72). Eastin went a 1:50.87 at NCAAs last year to set the American, NCAA, and U.S. Open records in the event. It’s incredibly difficult to verify how this stacks up in terms of non-tech suit, regular dual meet history, but this certainly has to be one of the best performances within those parameters (she’s #53 all-time with that swim, but #52 if you don’t count her own leading time).
Meanwhile, Katie Drabot unloaded a 1:53.49 to win the 200 fly, only nine hundredths off of her suited time from mid-season. That’s less than two seconds off of her lifetime best, and while she’s the 9th-best performer in history in this event, a 1:53.49 still puts her into the top 40 performers in history.
Taylor Ruck, the star freshman, was exceptional in both of her swims. She won the 100 free in 48.10 and the 200 free in 1:44.52, her fastest times of the season so far, while the 100 free was a lifetime best. Keep in mind that she did split a 46.21 anchoring Stanford’s 400 free relay at their mid-season invite.
Plenty of other Stanford women stepped up today. Allie Raab and Grace Zhao went 1-2 in the 100 breast at 1:00.83 and 1:00.91, respectively, as Raab was eight tenths off of her 2015 lifetime best, while Szekley went 2:10.69 to take the 200 breast. Megan Byrnes won the 1000 free in 9:44.15 ahead of Morgan Tankersley (9:49.15), and Brooke Forde, in her only swim of the meet, was 4:43.97 to win the 500 ahead of Tankersley’s 4:45.66. Lauren Pitzer won the 50 free (22.45), and took 2nd behind Ruck in the 100 free (48.97) and 200 free (1:45.94).
Ruck split a 21.57 anchoring Stanford’s 200 medley relay, which won in 1:37.76, while she was 21.87 swimming 2nd on their 200 free relay, which won in 1:29.83.
Stanford swept diving, with Haley Farnsworth taking the 1-meter (288.75) and freshman Daria Lenz winning the 3-meter (341.40). For USC, their sole winner of the day was Louise Hansson, who was 52.38 to take the 100 fly over Stanford’s Amalie Fackenthal (53.18). Hansson swam well, also going 1:46.52 to take 3rd in the 200 free and putting down the quickest fly split in the medley relay field (23.14).
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USC has a good team, but the Cardinal looked like the defending NCAA champs today, who expect to defend that title. Looking forward to the 2/16 dual against Cal.
Is there going to be a write-up for the Stanford UCLA meet? Ella Eastin’s 4:03 and Szekely’s 4:06 were incredible for in season swims! It’s also great to see Szekely swimming well in breaststroke again after plateauing for a while in that stroke.
Weird. While some Stanford girls are swimming lights out (Ruck, Eastin, Drabot), there are many that are swimming unusually off (Nordmann, Williams, Kukurugya). Looks like the pressure of that squad is high and they know they all can’t go to NCAAs. 🙁
I don’t think this is a fair judgement. Everyone swims differently in season compared to where they end up during taper. Also I’m pretty sure Kukurugya was close to her best in season ever in the 200 fly and nordmann has been dropping consistently solid times across a number of events. The juries always still out until February/March because if we looked at mid season times I would say Drabot was off but now she’s swimming lights out.
By the way, Morgan Tankersley went a 4:45; not a 4:49.
They are going to have to leave some swimmers home in March.
Nice to see Eastin put her name alongside a trio of Avery Aquatic Center records at the last home meets of her Stanford career. The pool record in the 200 IM must have been especially sweet for her since she took the record back from Texan rival Cox. And, while I’m always impressed by her powerful efforts on behalf of Stanford’s relays, it was nice to see Ruck throw down a couple of bests in 100 & 200 Free. This Stanford squad appears to be building nicely towards the championships. Very much looking forward to the clash with Cal in two weeks.