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NewsvineIt usually takes some kind of record to beat former Stanford swimmer Tara Kirk in her specialty, the 100-meter breaststroke. And that’s exactly what Irvine Novaquatics swimmer Jessica Hardy did two weekends ago at the Santa Clara International Meet, where she set a new meet record to win the 100 breast, a mere 0.25 seconds ahead of Kirk.
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Kirk was just one of several Stanford affiliates to compete in Santa Clara from June 23 to 26 at one of four legs in the Grand Prix circuit, which leads up to the FINA World Championships later this month in Montreal. Teams flew in from places as varied as Lebanon, Guatemala, Malaysia and Poland to compete in the meet, which included 531 athletes.
A 2004 Olympic medalist, Kirk won the other breaststroke event, the 200-meter race with a time of 2:30.04, more than a second ahead of Japan’s Asami Kitagawa.
Two other members of the Cardinal swim squad competed with the Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics Club — rising senior Dana Kirk and rising sophomore Brooke Bishop. Kirk picked up a third place finish in the 100-meter butterfly with a time of 1:00.52, while taking sixth in the 200 fly. Bishop placed fourth in the 50-meter freestyle, seventh in the 100 free and ninth in the 200 backstroke.
Distance free specialists Lauren Costella and Desiree Stahley, both rising juniors, placed ninth and seventh, respectively in the 1,500-meter freestyle, while Stahley also placed ninth in the 800 free.
The Stanford women were also successful in the relay events. Stahley, Bishop, Dana Kirk and Katherine Wong took away a win in the 800-free relay. Bishop chipped in the team’s fastest leg, a 2:05.84 split. Both Kirks and Bishop also competed on a fourth-place 400 medley relay team, which touched in with a total time of 4:11.54.
Rising senior Laura Davis — who was competing in Santa Clara with the Terrapins Swim Team — anchored her team in the 400-free relay and raced to a second place finish with a time of 3:55.37.