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Stanford set a school record in the 400 medley relay Thursday to open the 2013 NCAA Women's Swimming and Diving Championships at IU Natatorium in Indianapolis, Ind.

The Cardinal was second with a 3:30.86 in the prelims of the 400 medley relay and came back to set a school-record 3:30.06 for fourth in the finals. Maya DiRado, Sarah Haase, Felicia Lee and Andi Murez teamed to better the 3:30.45 set by the Cardinal in 2010.

Georgia (163) leads the field through day one in front of Tennessee (150.5), Arizona (127) and Cal (102). Stanford is fifth with 90.5 points.

"I was really pleased with day one of the meet as we exceeded our seeded points by quite a bit," Stanford head coach Greg Meehan said. "Losing half of our relays to graduation, I'm so proud of these women to finish fourth in both relays with a school record in the 400 medley.

"Individually, Maya DiRado and Maddy Schaefer were awesome. We need to be ready to go for tomorrow's preliminary session."

The meet will resume Friday with live results available at GoStanford.com.

Stanford's Schaefer, Murez, Alex Whitford and Lee tapped in at 1:28.60 in the prelims for the six seed in the 200 free relay. The finals saw the quartet go 1:27.90 for fourth.

Julia Anderson (4:45.04) was 33rd in the 500 free in front of Allison Brown (40th - 4:46.30) and Andie Taylor (44th - 4:47.21).

DiRado (1:54.56) shelved the fastest 200 IM time in the prelims but fell back to third overall with a 1:53.86 evening swim. American record holder and defending NCAA champion Caitlin Leverenz of Cal won the event in 1:53.39, over two seconds under her preliminary performance.

Schaefer got out to a meet-best 10.58 in the first length of the 50 free to post a 21.99 for third in the prelims. It was her first collegiate sub-22.00 showing. Schaefer fell one spot with a 22.01 for fourth-place points in the finals.

"The team is excited about the opportunity in front of us this week," Meehan said. "We've worked really hard and have come a long way since September. Now is the time to enjoy being together as a group and racing with a passion for our University."

Baseball
Mark Appel and the Stanford baseball team to open the Pac-12 Conference season on a good note when Utah visits to open a three-game series Friday night at 7 p.m.

The Cardinal (10-5) opened the season winning 10 of its first 12 games but then ran into a top UNLV club that swept Stanford in a three-game sweep before the break for finals.

The Runnin' Rebels used superior pitching to stop Stanford bats, winning 3-2, 12-2 and 5-1. The Cardinal defense was also faulty.

Appel (2-2, 1.20) allowed one earned run in his last outing and recorded a career-high 15 strikeouts. He has a conference-leading 43 strikeouts in 30 innings this season. Four of the nine runs scored against him are earned. Stanford has allowed 17 unearned runs through its first 15 games.

The Cardinal pitching staff has been outstanding all season, recording a 2.08 ERA. Bobby Zarubin (1-1, 1.08), Dean McArdle (1-0, 2.00) and John Hochstatter (0-1, 3.31) have contributed to the success. Sam Lindquist (0-0, 1.93) has three of the team's four saves.

The Stanford offense struggled leading up to its two-week break, with Menlo School grad Danny Diekroeger leading the team with his .286 batting average, 18 hits and two home runs.

Brian Ragira is next at .283 and the team average is .244.

Utah (0-3, 9-9) was sweep by California in its conference opener but is coming off a 3-2, extra inning, victory over Utah Valley.

"We're looking forward to playing a really good team this weekend," Utah coach Bill Kinneberg said. "Facing Mark Appel is going to be a fun challenge for our guys."

Utah will start Mitch Watrous (1-0, 3.80) on the mound on Friday, followed by Joe Pond (2-2, 5.81) on Saturday and Dalton Carroll (1-1, 5,40) on Sunday.

Stanford is the last Pac-12 team to play a conference series. Oregon State, UCLA and California all swept series in their Pac-12 openers, while Oregon and Washington each won 2 of 3.

Stanford also will host Utah on Saturday (2 p.m.) and Sunday (1 p.m.).

Softball
No. 15 Stanford heads to No. 10 Oregon for a three-game series to open Pac-12 Conference play. The Cardinal (22-5) took an eight-game winning streak into finals break.

Stanford brings a team batting average of .303 into its series with the Ducks, led by Kayla Bonstrom at .358. She also has 16 RBI, fourth on the team.

Bonstrom is one of six Cardinal players with a batting average above .301. Two others are at .292 and above.

Jenna Rich is hitting .301 with a team-best 23 runs, 22 RBI and three home runs (with Erin Ashby). Hanna Winter (.327), Tegan Schmidt (.326), Leah White (.321), Ashby (.308) and Sarah Hassman (.303) are also above .300.

Cassandra Roulund is hitting "just" .292 but has six double, five triples and driven in 18 runs. Jessica Plaza is at .295.

Teagan Gerhart (11-3, 1.36) and Kelsey Stevens (9-2, 1.91) lead a strong pitching staff that also includes Nyree White (2-0, 1.00).

Gerhart has 91 strikeouts in 87 innings and Stevens has 90 inb nearly 70 innings of work. The pitchers have combined for 11 shutouts on the season.

The Ducks (23-4) have taken the season series from Stanford each of the previous two years, both 2 of 3. The Cardinal had a 10-game win streak after it swept three-game series in 2008-10.

Women's water polo
After 13 days off for final exams, second-ranked Stanford returns to action with four games this weekend, beginning with Friday night's meeting with Harvard at Avery Aquatic Center at 7 p.m.

Following the match with Harvard, which is coached by former Castilleja coach Ted Minnis, the Cardinal (14-1, 2-0 MPSF) travels to Tempe, Ariz., where it Sunday plays a doubleheader against No. 3 Arizona State and Colorado State at 12 p.m. and 3 p.m., respectively. Stanford ends its three-game trip to Tempe on Monday at 10 a.m. against No. 19 Hartwick.

The Cardinal has won two straight MPSF games since suffering its only setback of the season Feb. 24 against USC. Heading into Friday meeting with Harvard, Stanford is led by the scoring of senior Melissa Seidemann, who leads the Cardinal with 36 goals, along with Anna Yelizarova (29 goals) and Maggie Steffens and Kiley Neushul, each with 25 goals on the year.

Stanford's defense, behind the goalkeeping trifecta of Kate Baldoni, Emily Dorst and Gabby Stone, allows just 4.33 goals per game.

— Palo Alto Online Sports

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