Bay Area part of joint bid for 2026World Cup

San Francisco is one of 23 cities included in a joint United States, Canada and Mexico bid for the 2026 World Cup.

Organizers plan to submit their official bid Friday to FIFA, soccer’s international governing body that is scheduled to select the host June 13. The united bid by North America is a heavy favorite over Morocco, the only other candidate.

While organizers list San Francisco as the Bay Area host city, games would be held at Levi’s Stadium, which is playing host to Mexico-Iceland aweek from Friday in a 2018 World Cup tuneup match.

Chicago and Vancouver, British Columbia, withdrew from consideration although both cities were expected to be included.

The bid for the 48-team World Cup calls for three Canadian and three Mexican cities. The other 17 cities are in the United States, including Baltimore and Cincinnati, which do not have Major League Soccer clubs.

The United States has played host to the World Cup once, in 1994. Mexico held it in 1970 and 1986. Canada has never been a host country for the men’s tournament.

NCAA women’s swimming

Stanford and Cal are 1-2 after the second day at the NCAAwomen’s swimming& diving championships. The Cardinal (211 points) leads the Bears (147) and Texas (109) through seven events.

No. 1 Stanford claimed national titles in all five events on Thursday, which included three American re- cords.

Ella Eastin, the 200-yard freestyle relay and the 400 medley relay teams each set new American records, while Katie Ledecky won the 500 free for the second straight year, and Simone Manuel, who won three national titles on the night, claimed her third NCAA gold in the 50 free.

Stanford capped its 5-for-5 night with an American record of 3:25.09 in the 400 medley relay (Ally Howe, KimWilliams, Janet Hu and Manuel ).

Stanford is the first school to win this event five straight times.

Hu and Howe joined former Cardinal Lori Heisick, the mother of Stanford sophomore Brooke Stenstrom, as the only swimmers to win four consecutive NCAA titles in the 400 medley relay.

Eastin set the NCAA and American standard in the 200 individual medley at 1:50.67. She knocked nearly a second off of the oldmark, which she set at the 2016 NCAA meet.

This was Eastin’s second national title in as many days (800 free relay) and the seventh of her career.

Hu, Manuel, Pitzer and Howe set an American record in the 200 free relay (1:25.68). In the finals, Hu, Manuel, Pitzer and Howe broke that mark with the fastest finish in history at 1:25.43.

This was Stanford’s eighth national title in the 200 free relay and first since 2014, breaking a three-year run by Cal, who finished seven-hundredths behind the Cardinal.

Stanford finished 1-2 in the 500 free. Ledecky’s finish of 4:26.57 outpaced the field by eight seconds as she became the third Stanford swimmer to win back-toback national titles in this event, joining Janet Evans ( 1990- 91) and Marybeth Linzmeier (1982-84).

Katie Drabot was next to touch the wall.

Manuel won her third national title in the 50 free. She is the fourth woman ever to win the event three times, and the second Cardinal to do so (Catherine Fox, 1997-99).

Cal set a pair of school records Thursday, opening the session by setting a school mark in the 200 free relay with a time of 1:25.50.

The Bears swamthe second-fastest time in history. Maddie Murphy led off, followed by Amy Bilquist, Katie McLaughlin and Abbey Weitzeil, who closed with a 21.01 anchor leg split.

Kathleen Baker also came through with a school record, breaking her own mark in the 200 individual medley in finishing second to Stanford’s Eastin.

Wrestling

Stanford’s Nathan Butler went 2- 0 to advance to the heavyweight quarterfinals of the NCAA Championships at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.

Butler, who is seeded seventh, will meet No. 2 seed Adam Coon of Michigan in his first NCAA quarterfinal appearance.

Sophomore 125-pounder Gabriel Townsell picked up a 9-7 decision overOklahoma’s ChristianMoody in the consolation bracket to stay alive in the tournament after falling in his first-roundmatch.

Paul Fox (157), Keaton Subjeck (174) and Nathan Traxler (197) all won opening round matches, but dropped into the consolation brackets during the evening session.