The Stanford women have opened the 2016 Pac-12 Championships with a new NCAA Record in the 200-yard medley relay.
The team of Ally Howe, Sarah Haase, Janet Hu, and Lia Neal combined to swim 1:34.15, which improves upon Cal’s 2012 NCAA Championships time of 1:34.24.
The comparative splits:
| Stanford Relay | Cal Relay | |
| New Record | Old Record | |
| Backstroke | Howe – 23.62 | Tran – 23.44 |
| Breaststroke | Haase – 26.20 | Leverenz – 26.63 |
| Butterfly | Hu – 22.82 | Fotsch – 22.97 |
| Freestyle | Neal – 21.51 | Jensen – 21.20 |
| Total | 1:34.15 | 1:34.24 |
As all four Stanford swimmers are Americans, they also broke the American and U.S. Open Records, both of which were previously held by the same Cal relay.
The Stanford women finished in 9th place, winning the B-Final, in this relay at last year’s NCAA Championship, with the exact same foursome. That’s misleading, though, as they actually had the fastest time in the finals, but a poor showing in prelims left them ineligible for the national title in the event.
In both cases, the Stanford relay was without the defending NCAA 50 yard freestyle champion Simone Manuel. Last year, she was on the Cardinal’s other 4 relays, while this season she is taking a red-shirt to prepare for the Olympics.