Publication Date: Wednesday, March 10, 2004
STANFORD ROUNDUP
Cardinal men splash way
Cardinal men splash way
(March 10, 2004)to 23rd straight swim title
Peter Marshall sets record to spark Pac-10 meet effort;
top-ranked baseball team takes two of three from USC
by Rick Eymer
A lot of everything added up to a 23rd straight Pacific-10 Conference Men's Swimming Championship for Stanford last weekend in Long Beach.
The nationally No. 2-ranked Cardinal had five individual winners, eight second places and eight thirds in the three-day meet. Just as impressive was Stanford's 54 season bests and numerous personal records.
All that added up to 866 1/2 points for Stanford, which was enough to hold off rival Cal (773) and third-place Arizona (522 1/2).
"This is one of the hardest-fought pac-10 championships in years," said veteran Stanford coach Skip Kenney. "I am so proud of this team and how they came together to do something no other team in this conference has done."
Which, of course, is to win 23 straight conference titles - unprecedented in any sport in the Pac-10.
The individual highlight of the meet for Stanford was turned in by senior Peter Marshall. He won the 100-yard backstroke in a U.S.-leading time of 45.21, which broke the Pac-10 record (45.43 by Stanford's Brian Retterer in 1995) and meet record (46.35 by Stanford's Randall Bal in 2002) in addition to lowering Marshall's own school record (45.32 in 2003).
Fellow senior Markus Rogan won the 200 IM in 1:45.18, clocked a U.S.-leading 1:40.97 to win the 200 back and grabbed second in the 400 IM in 3:44.84.
Junior Jayme Cramer won the 200 fly (1:43.87) and set personal records by taking second in the 500 free (4:17.32) and second in the 200 free (1:35.81).
Other Stanford standouts included seniors Scott Ransenberg and Michael Bruce, juniors Matt McDonald and Gary Marshall, and freshmen Shaun Phillips and Hongzhe Sun. Everyone, of course, contributed to the team victory.
Baseball
Top-ranked Stanford heads into a two-week break following yet another series win over the weekend.
The Cardinal (15-3) had their six-game winning streak stopped when USC scored early and often en route to an 11-8 victory on Sunday. Stanford won the first two games, 10-2 on Friday and 8-7 in 13 innings on Saturday to record its fifth straight series win over the Trojans, and their 10th straight series win overall.
Stanford returns to the diamond on Tuesday, March 23 when it plays at St. Mary's. The Cardinal play at Santa Clara the next night before returning home for a three-game series with Cal Poly beginning Friday, March 26.
Mark Romanczuk (4-1) pitched seven scoreless innings to record the victory in Friday's game, striking out seven.
Catcher Donny Lucy had three hits and Brian Hall hit a two-run homer.
"A point of emphasis for me was to get the leadoff hitter out," said Romanczuk, who retired six of seven lead-off hitters. "That's something I really wanted to do. It makes it a lot easier to just need two more outs at that point rather than three. I had all pretty good command of all four of my pitches also."
Menlo School grad Ryan Seawell recorded another pinch hit leading off the eighth. He eventually scored on a John Mayberry, Jr. sacrifice fly.
Romanczuk improved his career mark at Stanford to 16-3 for an .842 winning percentage, eighth on Stanford's career list, while Fuld had four official at bats to increase his career total to 881 and move up one spot to sixth on Stanford's all-time list in the category.
On Saturday, Danny Putnam singled home Jonny Ash with the winning run in the top of the 13th inning and Matt Manship recorded his first save by getting the Trojans out in the bottom of the 13th.
Stanford scored four runs in the ninth to send the game, which lasted 4:30, into extra innings. Ash hit a two-run homer and Mayberry, Jr. singled home the tying run.
"I realized it was a big spot, and I didn't want to be out there any longer," said Putnam.
Stanford has come from behind in nine of its 15 wins this season and has won twice when trailing heading into the ninth inning.
David O'Hagan (2-0) got the win with four scoreless innings of one-hit relief. He has allowed just four earned runs in his last 33 innings dating to last year, and lowered his ERA this season to 1.09.
Putnam and Jed Lowrie (each had three hits to lead Stanford's season-high 18-hit attack.
Stanford's ninth-inning rally on Sunday fell short. The Cardinal had the tying run at the plate before the game ended when Sam Fuld's line drive found its way into USC first baseman Joey Metropoulos' mitt.
Softball
Senior Dana Sorensen pitched a shutout as 10th-ranked Stanford defeated Cal State Fullerton, 9-0, in the final game of the Worth Invitational in Fullerton on Sunday to complete a five-game tournament sweep.
Sorensen (10-3) allowed three hits over six innings with five strikeouts.
Stanford (18-5) returns to action on March 20 when it hosts a Round Robin Tournament. UC Santa Barbara and Chicago-Illinois will also participate.
Meghan Sickler and Elizabeth Bendig each drove in two runs in the game, while Jackie Rinehart recorded three hits.
Rinehart had five hits and Katherine Hoffman added three hits in a 7-3 victory over Cal State Northridge on Friday. Lauren Lappin drove in three runs and Sorensen pitched a complete game, striking out 11.
Stanford opened the tournament with a 7-6 win over Oklahoma State when Meghan Sickler drove in the game winner with single in the sixth. Leah Nelson homered in the game.
Laura Severson pitched a shutout in Stanford's 4-0 victory over Portland State on Saturday. She allowed two hits and struck out four.
Lappin hit three doubles and scored three runs in a 4-0 win over UC Santa Barbara, also on Saturday. Sorensen allowed four hits in earning the shutout victoryu.
Women's water polo
Third-ranked Stanford won three Mountain Pacific Sports Federation matches over the weekend and Wendy Watkins continued her scoring spree despite being shut out in one match.
Watkins scored twice in Stanford's 8-5 win over host UC Davis on Friday and three times in Sunday's 13-3 win over visiting Arizona State.
Stanford (4-0, 11-2) beat visiting San Diego State, 6-1, on Saturday as Katie Hansen scored twice.
The Cardinal play again on March 20 at Hawaii before coming home to host an exhibition match against the United States National Team on March 27 at 7 p.m.
The national team features former Stanford players Margie Dingeldein, Ellen Estes, Jackie Frank, Kate Pettit, and Brenda Villa.
Watkins leads Stanford with 21 goals on the season, a 1.62 per game average.
Scotti Shafer added two goals in the win over Davis and Hannah Luber scored twice in the victory over Arizona State.
Meridith McColl had 12 saves in the first two games.
Women's tennis
Top-ranked Stanford won twice over the weekend, beating host Arizona State, 7-0, on Friday, and topping host Arizona, 6-1, on Saturday.
Against the Sun Devils, Stanford (13-0) singles players Amber Liu, Alice Barnes, Erin Burdette, and Lauren Barnikow all recorded straight set victories.
Theresa Logar and Anne Yelsey each recorded straight-set victories in the win over the Wildcats.
Stanford takes a break before hosting Santa Clara on Tuesday, March 23 at the Taube Tennis Center at 2:30 p.m.
Men's tennis
The Stanford doubles team of junior Sam Warburg and sophomore All-American KC Corkery captured the consolation championship at the Pacific Coast Doubles Championship at the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club on Sunday.
Corkery and Warburg, the No. 3 seeded team in the tournament, suffered a first round loss in the main draw on Friday, but recovered to win four matches in two days.
In the consolation semifinals, Corkery and Warburg beat the independent team of Neel Grover and Julien Heine, 6-4, 6-4.
In the finals, Corkery and Warburg defeated Stephen Bass and Eric Langenkamp of Notre Dame, 6-4, 6-2.
The Cardinal return to action on March 22nd, hosting No. 6 Baylor at the Taube Tennis Center.
Men's volleyball
Stanford upset host UC Irvine on Friday night in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation contest, and then nearly pulled off another upset before losing in five games to host UCLA on Saturday.
The 12th-ranked Cardinal (4-10, 7-12) knocked off the No. 9 Anteaters, 32-30, 30-32, 30-27, 30-27, as Craig Buell recorded 16 kills to lead a balanced attack.
Redshirt junior Patrick Bomhack added 15 kills, while outside hitters David Vogel and William Clayton each had 12 Sophomore middle blocker Chris Ahlfeldt recorded 10 kills, and setter Kevin Hansen had 53 assists.
Top-ranked UCLA rallied to beat Stanford, 30-28, 28-30, 22-30, 30-24, 17-15, on Saturday in a match that lasted well over two hours.
After dropping the first game to the Bruins, Stanford won games two and three to take a 2-1 edge in the match.
Stanford out-blocked the Bruins, 19.5-11 as Ahlfeldt and Buell combined for four solo blocks and 11 block assists.
Track and field
Sarah Hopping and Donielle Colich successfully opened their outdoor seasons by qualifying for the NCAA Regionals in the hammer to highlight Stanford's participation on Saturday in the Hornet Open at Sacramento State.
Hopping threw the hammer a career-best 186-0, the fourth-best mark in school history. Colich threw the hammer 185-8, also a career-best and fifth-best in the Stanford record book.
Jeane Goff finished third in the 1,500 meters with a Pac-10 qualifying time of 4:38.71. Lauren Fleshman, a former Stanford All-American and now competing unattached, won the event in a time of 4:30.02.
Andy Powell won the 3,000 meters (8:25.16) while Sean Knapp captured the 3,000 meter steeplechase (9:10.61). Freshman Julie Allen won the women's 3,000 meter steeplechase (10:11.83). Leah Tapscott captured top honors in the long jump (17-6, 5.33m) while Samantha Shepard won the pole vault (11-11 3/4, 3.65m).
In Seattle, the Stanford women's distance medley relay team ran the third fastest time in school history and qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships to highlight Stanford's participation on Saturday at the NCAA Last Chance Qualifier at Washington's Dempsey Indoor.
The team of Kathleen Trotter, Chinny Offor, Katie Hotchkiss and Sara Bei ran a season-best time of 11:08.67 to easily surpass the national qualifying time of 11:15.00.
Jill Camarena won the shot put competition with a throw of 54-10 1/4.
In men's competition, Nick Welihozkiy won the weight throw competition with a season-best throw of 66-0 1/2.
Men's gymnastics
Senior team captain Dan Gill won the all-around competition in his final regular-season home meet, but Stanford lost to visiting Penn State in a nonconference meet, 216.350-214.575, on Saturday.
Gill won the all-around with a 55.325.
Stanford hosts the MPSF Regional Championships on March 19th and 20th in Burnham Pavilion.
Women's gymnastics
Fifth-ranked Stanford defeated host Maryland, 197-775-197.375, on Saturday as the Cardinal topped the 197 mark for the third straight week.
Stanford's Caroline Fluhrer tied Rachel Martinez of Maryland for top honors in the all-around with a score of 39.600, while Lindsay Wing finished third with a score of 39.425.
The Cardinal (8-3) advance to the Pac-10 Championship meet in Tucson on March 20th.
Women's lacrosse
Stanford dropped a 6-5 decision to visiting No. 11 Vanderbilt on Sunday in a nonconference match.
Megan Burker led the 17th-ranked Cardinal (3-3) with two goals, giving her 12 on the season.
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