Junior Alex Clay won the three-meter diving competition at the Pac-12 Championships Thursday to help keep the Stanford women’s swimming and diving team in second place at the mid-point of the four-day meet.
The Cardinal, which had three swimmers among the top five in the 50 free, trails California, 550-512 1/2.
“We had a great team performance,” Stanford coach Greg Meehan said. “One of the best days at a Pac-12 meet, top to bottom, in the last three years. Sarah Haase continues to impress and Alex Clay was a hammer in winning the three-meter dive.”
Clay, in winning her first Pac-12 title, recorded a composite score of 363.95 to finish ahead of Arizona’s Samantha Pickens (352.95) and Arizona State’s Hailey Casper (343.35).
Freshman Simone Manuel was second in the 50 free (21.81), Stanford’s highest individual swimming finish of the evening. Fellow freshman Janet Hu tied for third (22.13) and sophomore Lia Neal was virtually even in finishing fifth (22.14).
Haase improved on an eighth-place preliminary time in the 200-yard IM to finish fourth in the final. She swam a personal best 1:57.01 in the final, and the mark is No. 8 in Stanford history. Sophomore Grace Carlson (1:57.71) was in sixth with a B-cut time that is expected to qualify her for the NCAA meet.
Stanford’s other second-place effort came in the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:28.02). Cal’s 1:27.18 set a Pac-12 meet record.
Junior Allison Brown and senior Mackenzie Stein started the night by taking eighth (4:48.41) and ninth (4:43.65), respectively, in the 500-yard freestyle.
Brown qualified in fourth with a prelim time of 4:41.30, tied for sixth best in program history.
Preliminaries and finals for the 400-yard individual medley, 100-yard butterfly, 200-yard freestyle, 100-yard breaststroke and 100-yard backstroke are set for Friday.
That’s in addition to the prelims and semifinals for the men’s 3-meter dive and the women’s 1-meter dive.
Action from the first two days of competition airs at 10 a.m. Friday on Pac-12 Networks.
Men’s diving
Kristian Ipsen captured his third consecutive conference title in the 1-meter event Thursday at the Pac-12 championships.
Ipsen’s aggregate score of 459.25 in the finals was enough to clear himself from second-place Rafael Quintero of Arizona State and his 445.60. Stanford’s Bradley Christensen (321.80) moved up from seventh in the prelims to fifth overall.
He’ll attempt to earn another title Friday in the 3-meter event.
Also in the 1-meter, Tarek Abdelghany (299.70) was 10th and Ted Miclau (295.40) took 12th for the Cardinal.
By Palo Alto Online Sports/Stanford Athletics
By Palo Alto Online Sports/Stanford Athletics
By Palo Alto Online Sports/Stanford Athletics