Stanford increases its lead on day three of Pac-12 Championships

FEDERAL WAY, Wash. – Day three of the Pac-12 Women's Swimming and Men’s & Women’s Diving Championships saw Stanford take a huge 275-point lead after picking up four additional wins. 

Cal, Stanford and USC captured wins in the swimming portion while Arizona’s Delaney Schnell picked up her first career title in the 3-meter and her second diving win of the Championship. 

The men’s diving competition concluded with USC’s Laurent Gosseli-Paradis earning a win in the Platform, his second title of the week after a win in the 1-meter. 

400 Individual Medley

• Cal’s Leah Polonsky became the first non-Stanford swimmer to win the 400 IM Championship title since 2015, swimming a 4:05.27 time and staying ahead of her competition by at least two seconds the entire race.
• In Polonsky’s second win of the Championships, she swam the fastest time in the Conference and ninth-fastest time in the country, this season.
• Finishing a second behind Polonsky was UCLA’s Paige MacEachern, who earned the first podium finish of her career and a 4:06.17 B cut final time and season-best. 
• Taking home third was Cardinal freshman Lucy Bell in her first podium appearance of the Championship and her career. Finishing only .11 seconds behind the runner up, Bell solidified her spot on the podium. 

100 Butterfly 

• Reigning Pac-12 100-Yard Fly Champion Torri Huske, earned her first back-to-back championship titles, swimming a 49.27 and taking home first place. 
• Her 49.27 time broke the Pac-12 Championship record set by Louise Hansson in 2019 (49.34) and earned Huske a second top time in the Cardinal record book. 
• The now 10-time Pac-12 Champion has not lost a single Championship event in her two years at Stanford. 
• Mia Kragh of California finished second in first career podium finish with a personal-best time of 51.63 followed by Arizona’s first top-three swimming finish of the Championships. Wildcat Julia Heimstead swam a 52.03 to earn third. 

200 Freestyle

• Stanford swept the 200 Freestyle event, with three Cardinal all finishing within one second of each other.
• Stanford’s Taylor Ruck, already decorated with three podium finishes, earned her first individual event win of the Championship, swimming a 1:43.04 in the 200 Free. 
• Due to a false start disqualification, Stanford freshman Kayla Wilson captured second place with a time of 1:43.70 to earn a personal-best alongside the podium finish. 
• Moving into third was senior Morgan Tankersley, who picked up her third podium finish, with a time of 1:44.04.

100 Breaststroke

• 2022 NCAA Champion, two-time Pac-12 Champion and Pac-12 Championship record holder Kaitlyn Dobler topped her previous Championship record in the 100 Breaststroke with a time of 57.10.
• Now a back-to-back-to-back Pac-12 Champion, Dobler finished almost two seconds ahead of her closest competitor to earn a dominant win.
• Fellow Trojan, Isabelle Odgers swam a 58.92 just narrowly missing her personal-best time of 58.88 to earn a second-place finish.
• Claire Grover, UCLA’s only top-three finisher of the Championship, saw the podium for the second time, earning third with a time of 59.37.

100 Backstroke

• A now back-to-back Pac-12 Champion, Stanford’s Claire Curzan earned a personal best of 49.46, setting a new Pac-12 Championship record after topping her former teammate Regan Smith (49.50, 2022).
• Now holding the third fastest time in the NCAA this season, Curzan earned her third 2023 podium finish. 
• Tying for the third-most decorated athlete in this year’s Championship was Isabelle Stadden, finishing in second with her fourth top-three finish (1:55.52).
• USC’s Odgers finished close behind, swimming a time of 1:55.68.

400 Medley Relay 

• With a huge 5.30 second lead, the Stanford Cardinal took their third relay win of the championships, this time in the 400 Medley Relay. 
• Three Olympians and one Junior World Champion - Claire Curzan, Allie Raab, Torri Huske and Taylor Ruck - swam a 3:25.79, which was good fo third in program history.
• With yet another disqualification, two teams were able to slide up in the rankings, with Cal taking their second relay podium finish and UCLA taking their first. 

Women’s 3 Meter

• Arizona’s Delaney Schnell secured her first Pac-12 Championship title in the Women’s 3-meter with a final score of 373.60.
• Finishing with a huge 46-point lead, Schnell now holds two of the three 2023 Pac-12 diving titles. 
• USC’s Nike Agunbiade scored a season-high of 327.40 with Utah's Holly Waxman taking third with a score of 322.65. 

Men’s Platform

• USC’s Laurent Gosseli-Paradis earned his second first-place finish of the Championship, taking the Men’s Platform competition with a huge 56-point win (416.05).
• The first-place finish was Gosseli-Paradis’s second overall Pac-12 title and first in the event. Alongside his personal feats, the freshman was the Trojans’s 14th winner in program history and second in a row. 
• Second place went to Arizona’s Bjorn Markentin (359.95), his second Pac-12 title in the event, while third went to Utah’s Luke McDivitt (350.40), 2021’s Platform champion.