Feb. 25, 2004
LONG BEACH, Calif. -- Stanford and California jumped into the early lead at the 2004 Pac-10 Women's Swimming Championship as action got underway at the Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool Wednesday evening in Long Beach, Calif.
The Stanford Cardinal defended their championship in the 200 medley relay with a NCAA automatic qualifying time of 1:39.87. Senior All-American Tara Kirk had a 27.09 split in the breastroke portion of the relay. Megan Baumgartner (backstroke), Dana Kirk (butterfly) and Sarah Jones (freestyle) making up the other three legs. Arizona (1:40.49) and UCLA (1:40.88) each earned NCAA consideration times with their swims finishing second and third respectively. California, led by Olympian Natalie Coughlin, placed fourth at 1:41.28 with Arizona State finishing fifth with a season-best and NCAA consideration time of 1:41.78.
In the second and last event of the opening night of the championship, California set a Pac-10 meet record with a 7:08.13. Erin Reilly, Ashley Chandler, Micha Burden and Lauren Medina helped the Golden Bears to the victory. USC also bettered the previous meet record with a NCAA automatic time of 7:09.14. Arizona (7:15.51), Stanford (7:17.73) and Arizona State (7:18.66) rounded out the top five with NCAA consideration standards.
The 2004 Pac-10 Women's Swimming Championship will continue Thursday through Saturday at the Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool. Thursday's events include 500 freestyle, 200 IM, 50 freestyle and the 200 freestyle relay.
Team Scores After Two Events:
| 1. | Stanford | 116 |
| 2. | California | 116 |
| 3. | Arizona | 110 |
| 4. | USC | 102 |
| 5. | Arizona State | 100 |
| 6. | Washington State | 88 |
| 7. | UCLA | 54 |
| 8. | Oregon State | 48 |
| 9. | Washington | 44 |