Despite winning five events at the NCAA Championships, which took place on March 18-20 in West Lafayette, Ind., the Stanford women’s swimming team came away with a second-place finish. The Cardinal finished with 379.5 points, while Florida won the event with 382 points, a mere 2.5 points ahead of Stanford.
Other notable finishes were defending champion California, in third place with 363 points; Arizona, in fourth place with 359.5 points; and Georgia, in fifth place with 342.5 points. The Bulldogs and the Cardinal shared the No. 1 national ranking heading into the meet.
The Card was attempting to win its first national championship since 1998. Its second-place finish is the highest Stanford has scored since 2001.
The team was led by big performances from senior co-captains Julia Smit and Elaine Breeden. Both swimmers finished with two national championships apiece, with Smit taking the 200 and 400-yard individual medley and Breeden winning the 100 and 200-yard butterfly. Breeden’s victory in the 200 fly gave her a third national championship in the event—she is one of only three swimmers to ever accomplish that feat.
Stanford’s relay teams also turned in strong performances. The 400-yard freestyle relay team, consisting of Smit, junior Kate Dwelley and sophomores Sam Woodward and Betsey Webb, took home a national championship with a time of 3:12.32. Two other teams—the 200 free relay and the 400 medley relay—took second place.
Other Cardinal swimmers also garnered significant All-American honors, which are given to a top-16 finisher. Smit, Webb and Dwelley were all seven-time All-Americans at the meet.
While its swimming team was strong, the Stanford diving team was not quite as impressive. Junior Meg Hostage was the Card’s top finisher in all three diving events. She took 18th in platform diving, 23rd on the 3-meter springboard and 32nd on the 1-meter springboard.