As a rule, the Stanford women’s swimming and diving team has never placed out of the top six at the NCAA Championship in the history of the meet. This year was no exception.

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Stanford Daily File Photo

The Stanford women’s squad finished in a close third place behind Auburn and national champion Arizona. Amidst a number of standout performances, sophomore Julia Smit was a highlight for the Cardinal, as she captured the national championship in the 400 individual medley.

The Cardinal earned its first top three finish since 2002 when it placed third at the 2008 NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships, which were held from March 20 to March 22 in Columbus, Ohio. Led by sophomore Julia Smit, who claimed her first individual national title in the 400 individual medley (IM), the Cardinal continued its tradition as a perennial swimming powerhouse.

The Stanford women were unable to catch a runaway Arizona squad, who won their first ever NCAA Championship title with an impressive 484 points. Auburn, the defending national champions, finished second with 348 points, narrowly ahead of Stanford’s 343 point effort. Fourth went to Texas A&M with 315 points. And despite finishing behind them last year, Stanford fans will be happy to note that the Cardinal finished comfortably ahead of Bay Area rival California (291 points), who finished fifth.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing for the Card, however. In the very first scored event of the meet, Stanford’s third-ranked 200 freestyle relay squad lost valuable points when it was controversially disqualified for a false start. Relays count for double the points, so the disqualification was all the more important. Nonetheless, the team fought their way up from fifth after the first day to third at the culmination of the meet, finishing only five points behind second-place Auburn.

Stanford head women’s swimming coach Lea Maurer was impressed with the tenacity of the team after the disqualification.

“I am so proud of our girls and the way that the team came together and fought back through adversity,” said Maurer. “Coming back after that DQ early in the meet and being in a dogfight for second at the end was exactly where we needed to be.”

The success of the Cardinal can be attributed, in part, to the strong senior leadership from captains Brooke Bishop and Elizabeth Durot. In their four years with the team, Bishop and Durot have been invaluable to the team effort. Both have individual Pac-10 titles to their name and have earned All-American status every year.

Bishop (10th, 50 freestyle) and Durot (11th, 1650 freestyle) completed their collegiate careers scoring in individual events for the fourth year in a row. Lone senior diver, Katie Lampe, also led a young diving team to be one of the best in the nation. While the three graduating seniors will be missed, the young Stanford team promises to continue the Cardinal winning tradition in coming years.

And at the NCAA Championships, the underclassmen made their mark. Sophomores Elaine Breeden and Smit continued their phenomenal collegiate careers, with Breeden placing fourth in the 100 butterfly, ninth in the 200 IM and second in the 200 butterfly. Smit placed in the top eight in all three of her individual events: fourth in the 200 IM, seventh in the 200 backstroke, and, in Stanford’s signature swim of the meet, first in the 400 IM, which she won in dominating fashion. Smit’s time in the 400 IM was nearly two seconds ahead of second place and only 0.13 seconds from former Stanford legend Summer Sanders’ 16-year old NCAA, NCAA Meet and Stanford records.

“I’m really excited about winning my first national championship,” said Smit. “Setting up momentum for the team and for the rest of the meet was really important to me.”

In their first NCAA Championship, the freshman class also made its mark in the Stanford record books. In the 200 breaststroke, freshman Liz Smith claimed second place behind current NCAA record holder, Rebecca Soni. Smith’s time places her as the third fastest in Stanford history.

Smith also took fourth in the 100 breaststroke and 11th in the 200 IM. Fellow freshmen Kate Dwelley earned her spot as an NCAA finalist as well, placing sixth in the 200 freestyle and 10th in the 200 IM. In her leadoff split in the 400 freestyle relay, Dwelley’s time tied Bishop’s as the second-fastest 100 freestyle swim in Stanford history. With her second place finish in the platform dive, freshman Meg Hostage appears to be following in the footsteps of former Stanford diver and national champion, Cassidy Krug. Hostage also placed 13th in the 1-meter diving event.

But the scoring didn’t stop there. Other scoring swims for the Cardinal included junior Caroline Bruce’s fifth-place finish in the 200 breaststroke and 11th in the 100 breaststroke, freshman Kerry Kraemer’s 13th place finish in the 200 breaststroke, junior Laura Wadden’s 16th place in the 200 butterfly, sophomore diver Shana Karp’s fifth place and junior Sarah Ohr’s 16th place finishes in the platform.

The 200 medley relay team of junior Fiona O’Donnell-McCarthy, Bruce, Breeden and Bishop finished in second while the third place 400 medley relay squad of Smit, Bruce, Breeden and Bishop; the fourth place relay of Dwelley, Whitney Spence, Smit and Durot; and the fifth place 400 freestyle relay team of Dwelley, Smit, Breeden and Bishop rounded out the scoring for the Cardinal.

“Every single athlete that made the trip scored for Stanford,” Maurer said, commenting on the impressive feat.

In her three years at Stanford, Maurer has coached the team to a fifth, fourth and now third place finish. While Maurer hopes to keep the trend going in the next few seasons, she was certainly proud of her team this year.

“We showed a ton of heart,” said Stanford head women’s swimming and diving coach Lea Maurer. “I couldn’t be more proud of our team.”