Stanford, Cal on top after day one of Pac-12 women's swimming championships
Day 1 Results | Day 2 Heat Sheets (Morning Session) | Pac-12 Women's Swimming and Men's and Women's Diving Championship Central
Federal Way, Wash. - Stanford and California—the favorites heading into the 2014 Pac-12 Women’s Swimming Championships—didn’t waste any time duking it out in the water on day one of the event at the Weyerhaeuser King Country Aquatic Center in Federal Way, Wash. The two schools have dominated the championships over the last five years, with the Bears taking two titles and the Cardinal nabbing three, including the title in 2013.
The reigning Pac-12 Champions started its title defense off fast, picking up a win in the 200 medley relay to kick off the event. Cardinal swimmers Felicia Lee, Katie Olsen, Nicole Stafford and Maddy Shaefer combined for a time of 1:35.74, which was 0.8 seconds faster than a program record set in a third-place finish at last year’s championships. The Bears relay team was close behind, finishing just 30 hundredths of a second back at 1:36.06. USC grabbed the third spot to earn some hardware, recording a time not far behind the other award winners with a 1:36.06.
In the night’s second event—the 800 freestyle relay— the Bears returned the favor, besting the Cardinal by almost five seconds en route to a first-place finish. Cal’s winning relay team of Missy Franklin, Rachel Acker, Caroline Piehl and Elizabeth Pelton earned a time of 6:53.57 to break the Pac-12 meet record of 6:56.87—also set by a Bears’ relay quad in 2008. The Cardinal squad posted a time of 6:58.23 to earn second while the Trojans earned their second third-place finish of the evening with a 7:01.65.
Heading into day two, Stanford and California are tied at the top with 120 points a piece, followed by USC (108), Arizona (104), UCLA (100), Utah (94), Washington State (92), Oregon State (86) and Arizona State (46).
Action continues tomorrow as preliminaries and finals for the 500 free, 200 individual medley and 50 free will take place in the morning and evening session, respectively. The men’s and women’s diving portion of the event will also kick off tomorrow morning and afternoon with the men’s three meter preliminaries and the women’s one meter preliminaries and finals. Capping the late session on the first full day of competition will be the men’s three meter diving finals followed by the 200 freestyle relay.