Maya DiRado won the 400 individual medley in 4:00.58 as Stanford remained on top of the pack through Friday's action at the 2013 Pac-12 Conference Women's Swimming and Diving Championships
in Federal Way, Wash.

DiRado's time was good for an NCAA 'A' cut to help bring her team's point total to 953.5 for the first-place Cardinal.

With one day remaining, Stanford is trailed by second-place USC (945.5), Cal (883.5), Arizona (775) and UCLA (614.5) among the nine scoring teams competing at the King County Aquatic Center.

"This was a great day of racing and diving today," Stanford head coach Greg Meehan said. "We were excellent from start to finish, and we've put ourselves in a position to compete for a team championship tomorrow."

The final day of the championships starts Saturday with the platform prelims at 10 a.m. The swimming portion kicks off at 11 a.m. with the finals set for 6 p.m. Live results will be available at GoStanford.com.

Andi Murez steamed to second in the 200 free, going 1:44.72 behind Cal's Rachael Acker (1:44.66), a freshman from Gunn High. It was Acker's first Pac-12 title. Stanford's Julia Anderson tapped in at 1:45.53 for fourth.

Stanford's Felicia Lee (52.32) was seventh in the 100 fly and took bronze honors in the 100 back (51.53). Palo Alto High grad Jasmine Tosky of USC was eighth in the 100 fly (52.34).

In the 200 breast, third-place Sarah Haase went 59.54 as teammate Katie Olsen (1:00.18) was fourth. Rounding out the top-eight were Annemarie Thayer (53.24) and Maddy Schaefer (53.85).

Three Cardinal finished in the top eight of the 1-meter event, paced by fifth-place Sloane Brazina (296.30). Stephanie Phipps, who won the 3-meter event on Thursday, placed sixth with 290.70 points. Alexandra Clay (276.70) was eighth.

"We dove very well today with breakout performances by Sloane and Alex," heading diving coach Dr. Rick Schavone said. "Stephanie was very solid as expected."

Stanford closed the session by logging a 3:32.36 in the 400 medley relay. The mark set by DiRado, Haase, Lee and Schaefer was good for an NCAA 'A' cut. Cal finished second in 3:30.18 as Acker anchored the Bears in 48.06 for her 100 free leg.

Men's diving
After placing second in the prelims, Stanford's Kristian Ipsen lit up the scoreboard with a 442.15 in the finals to claim the 1-meter crown Friday during the 2013 Pac-12 Conference Men's Diving Championships at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, Wash.

Ipsen went 407.20 in the opening round before posting the win, his second title in as many days after winning the 3-meter event Thursday evening.

"Our men were really good tonight," Stanford diving coach Dr. Rick Schavone said. "Kristian was brilliant and Taylor and Connor are having a very good meet."

Ipsen was joined on the podium by third-place Connor Kuremsky (357.45) and fourth-place Taylor Sishc (356.25) to give the Cardinal a 1-3-4 showing.

Women's gymnastics
On a night dedicated to seniors Ashley Morgan and Nicole Dayton, it was only fitting the fourth-year duo provided the exclamation point to Stanford's 197.200 tri-meet victory over Oregon State (197.175) and California (195.000).

As No. 12 Stanford (10-3, 5-2 Pac-12) prepared for its final rotation on floor exercise, trailing No. 9 Oregon State (11-6, 5-1 Pac-12) by .050 of a point, the seniors knew they would need to leave it all out on the floor. Dayton performed first and set the bar for her teammates, delivering a career-best 9.875. Morgan provided the anchor score, performing fifth and earning a 9.925 to finish third overall.

Dayton was followed by Taylor Rice who tied her career-high of 9.875 and Shona Morgan who also tied her career-best with a 9.925 and finished tied for third with Ashley Morgan.

Pauline Hansetcapped off an impressive evening with a career-high 9.900 to finish fifth. It was the third score Hanset contributed on the night that either tied or was a career-best.

Stanford head coach Kristen Smythwas impressed with her team's performance on floor which recorded a season-high team score of 49.500.

"The floor team really stepped up, and with Oregon State putting the pressure on us going into the last event, to see us finish strong was really exciting," Smyth said.

Despite being outscored on three of four events and claiming just one individual victory on the night, Stanford's balanced lineup handed Oregon State its first Pac-12 loss and defeated Cal (8-6, 1-6 Pac-12) for the second time on the season.

Track and field
Stanford's men's distance medley relay team wanted to secure a spot in the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, but did better than that -- breaking the school indoor record Friday in Notre Dame, Ind.

The team of Tyler Stutzman (1,200 meters), Spencer Chase (400), Luke Lefebure (800), and Michael Atchoo (1,600) ran 9:28.25 at the Alex Wilson Invitational at Notre Dame's Loftus Sports Center while finishing third overall.

The time broke the Stanford record of 9:28.83 set by Gabe Jennings, Even Kelty, Michael Stember, and Jonathon Riley in 2000. Jennings and Stember both made the U.S. Olympic team that year in the 1,500.

For Atchoo, it was his second school record in as many weeks, following his 3:57.14 mile at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation indoor championships in Seattle on Saturday.

Stanford came into the weekend with the No. 3 DMR time in the nation, a 9:34.20 run at the Armory Invitational in New York City on Feb. 1.

While Stanford's appeared to be in good position to advance, only the top 16 in each event qualify for the NCAA Championships March 8-9 in Fayetteville, Ark. Results from this weekend's flurry of last-chance qualifying meets could have displaced the Cardinal.

The final qualifying list will be released Sunday, but it appears the Stanford DMR is in good shape, having run three seconds faster than the nation's No. 1 mark going into the weekend, a 9:31.82 by Texas.

Stanford freshman Amy Weissenbach ran the 800 meters in 2:05.56 for the team's second school indoor record of the night.

Weissenbach, who broke Justine Fedronic's year-old mark of 2:05.68, won at the UW Final Qualifier, one of a series of last-chance meets around the country.

Though Weissenbach, racing on the 307-meter flat track at University of Washington's Dempsey Indoor facility, improved on her best of 2:05.83, she still has no assurance of qualification. She was No. 13 going in, and will have to wait until the end of Saturday's meets to know if she advanced.

Weissenbach had to run virtually alone in earning her first collegiate 800 victory. A rabbit had gone out a bit too fast, preventing Weissenbach or the other runners from being able to take advantage of the pacer.

Still, Weissenbach came through the opening 400 in 60 seconds, held off a Washington runner with 250 to go and essentially won in a wire-to-wire effort.

In the men's high jump, Stanford's Jules Sharpe was on the qualifying bubble and did not improve upon his season-best. However, he did place second by clearing 7-3 for the third consecutive meet. Sharpe missed on three tries at a Stanford record 7-4 1/4. He came into the meet at No. 15 nationally with a best of 7-3 1/4.

Alyssa Wisdom won the women's shot put, but her winning mark of 52-0 1/2 was not an improvement. She came in with the No. 10 mark in the nation of 55-8 1/4.

Stanford's Jordan Merback was second in the triple jump at 41-1, but it won't be enough to advance her through.

Geoffrey Tabor was second in the men's shot put at 57-9 3/4, but will not qualify for nationals.

Softball
The No. 15 Cardinal dropped a 7-6 decision to Iowa and was shut out, 4-0, by Wisconsin on Friday, on the first day of the Easton Invitational in Fullerton. The Cardinal drops to 14-5 overall, while the Hawkeyes moved to 11-6 and the Badgers jump to 12-1.

Freshman Kelsey Stevens took the loss against Iowa, dropping to 8-2 on the year. She gave up five runs on two hits with two walks in 1 1/3 innings. Kayla Massey earned the win for Iowa, improving to 4-4.

Against Wisconsin, senior Teagan Gerhart gave up three runs (only one earned) on three hits in 3.0 innings of work to fall to 6-3 on the year. Sophomore Nyree White threw the final four innings, allowing one run on four hits with two strikeouts. Cassandra Darrah earned the win, remaining undefeated at 8-0.

Stanford will continue the Easton Invitational on Saturday against host Cal State Fullerton at 11:15 a.m. and Northwestern at 3:45 p.m.

— Palo Alto Online Sports

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