Cardinal sweeps five races

Stanford women dominate in Day 2 of Pac-12 Swimming

The Stanford women swept all five events in Thursday’s second day of the Pac-12 Swimming and Diving Championships in Federal Way, Washington.

Freshman Katie Ledecky broke her American and NCAA record in the 500-yard freestyle, and junior Simone Manuel broke her school record in the 50 free. Stanford has won all seven events through the first two days and leads with 546 points. Cal is second at 490, and Arizona is third with 376.

“Today was a great day for our team,” Stanford coach Greg Meehan said. “There were a lot of really great swims from our seniors down to our freshmen. In particular, I thought Katie Drabot and Kim Williams really stood out with their swims today.”

Diver Kassidy Cook set the tone with a victory on the 1-meter, as Cook’s 338.35 points bettered UCLA’s Maria Polyakova’s 335.75. It marked the first Pac-12 title for Cook.

Ledecky followed with another record-setting swim. She broke her own marks in the 500 free by more than a second with a time of 4 minutes, 25.15 seconds. Freshman Katie Drabot, the runner-up, had the third fastest time in school history of 4:35.69.

Stanford had four of the eight swimmers in the A final of the 500 free, as freshman Megan Byrnes posted the sixth-fastest time in program history at 4:39.14 to finish fourth. Sophomore Leah Stevens had the ninth-fastest finish in Stanford history at 4:40.79 to place seventh.

Manuel stormed to her fourth career Pac-12 title and first in the 50 free. She topped a field of Olympians with a time of 21.29. That bested her school record of 21.32 from her national title in the event in 2015.

Ella Eastin repeated as champion in the 200 individual medley. Her time of 1:52.34 is the fastest in the nation this year and locked up the fourth individual Pac-12 title of her career, and sixth overall.

Stanford edged out Cal by five-hundreths of a second in the 200 free relay. Manuel, Lia Neal, Janet Hu and Ally Howe finished in a meet-record time of 1:26.44. That was also just .21 off the school record.

Cal stands in second place following a night of close calls and personal bests in day two of the Pac-12 meet. Cal had three second-place finishes and a third in four events.

In the 500 freestyle, Katie McLaughlin swam a personal-best 3:36.04 to take third. The time eclipses the NCAA A qualifying standard and places her No. 3 on Cal’s all-time list. Freshman Chenoa Devine improved her season best by more than four seconds and captured the B final in 4:41.19.

In the 200 individual medley, sophomore Kathleen Baker was second in a lifetime best of 1:52.74, which put her No. 2 in the country.

Sophomore Phoebe LaMay led the Bears on the 1-meter springboard, placing fifth with a score of 286.15 and improving four spots from last year.

Men’s volleyball

The No. 8 Stanford team fell to No. 3 BYU 2521, 25-20, 25-21 at Maples Pavilion.

Stanford (9-6, 6-4 MPSF) struggled offensively, hitting .172. BYU (13-2, 7-1 MPSF) finished with 42 kills.