Maya Dirado and Maddy Schaefer each came away with two wins, as the Stanford women rolled through their season opener over San Jose State, 138 to 100. These two teams have opened their season against each other for the last few years, and with neither team registering an NCAA ‘B’ standard, it’s very clear both squads are coming off some pretty heavy early season training.
The Cardinal started things off with a 1-2-3 finish in the 200 medley relay, where second year coach Greg Meehan looked to spread out the relays for some good internal competition. Ultimately, the team of Schaefer, Katie Olsen, Nicole Stafford, and Haley Sims touched first in 1:43.96.
Stanford duplicated that finish in the following event, with Dirado, freshman Tara Halsted, and sophomore Julia Anderson again going 1-2-3. Halsted held the lead through the first half of the race, but Dirado came back hard, negative splitting her 1000 by almost eight seconds to win in 10:07.36 (5:07.80-4:59.36). Dirado, who made big strides this summer to establish herself as one of the top swimmers in the country, later went on to touch first in the 100 fly (55.88).
Fellow seniors Andie Taylor and Felicia Lee also captured individual wins, with Taylor posting the top time in the 200 fly (2:03.43, just ahead of a 2:03.62 from San Jose State’s Ashlyn Acosta) and 200 IM (2:05.79), and Lee winning the 500 freestyle (4:59.13).
2012 Olympian Lia Neal and Halsted each won an individual event in their first collegiate meet, as well. Neal cruised through the 200 freestyle (1:52.74), and Halsted blew away the field in the 200 back (her specialty) by 4+ seconds, touching in 2:01.74.
Annemarie Thayer (100 back – 56.85), Katie Olsen (100 breast – 1:04.36), and Sarah Haase (200 breast – 2:20.80) were the other winners for Stanford.
San Jose State did sneak away with an individual win, thanks to Alysha Bush, who captured the 100 free in 52.24.
At publish time, there was no individual diving results posted. Event 8 was missing on the results document.