The NCAA News - News and Features

March 31, 1997

Southern California tops field in I women's swimming

Kristine Quance and Lindsay Benko won two events apiece and Southern California held onto the lead down the stretch to take the team title at the Division I Women's Swimming and Diving Championships March 20-22 at Indianapolis.

Quance's victory in the 200-yard breaststroke during the final day's events put Southern California in the lead, and the Trojans hung on for an 11-point win over five-time defending champion Stanford.

The title was the first for Southern California but the third for coach of the year Mark Schubert, who took Texas to the top in 1990 and 1991. He and Stanford coach Richard Quick are the only coaches who have won team titles since 1984, and Southern California is the first team champion other than Texas or Stanford since Florida won the first meet in 1982.

In addition to the 200-yard breaststroke victory, Quance won her third title in the 400-yard individual medley to end her career with eight individual wins. Benko's titles were in the 500-yard freestyle and the 200-yard backstroke, her third and fourth career victories. She also finished second in the 200-yard freestyle.

Stanford managed to hold the lead into the final day on the strength of freshman and Olympian Catherine Fox, who sprinted to victory in the 50-yard freestyle in the meet's fourth event, then captured the 100-yard backstroke on the second day to help give the Cardinal a 15-point advantage heading into the home stretch.

Stanford also had a leg up on Southern California in the relay events, finishing no worse than fourth in the five events and winning one, the 400-yard freestyle, with Fox as the anchor. The Cardinal outscored the Trojans, 166-128, in the relays but did not post an individual event winner besides Fox in the other 16 events.

Swimmer-of-the-meet honors went to Southern Methodist's Martina Moravcova, who won three events to help the Mustangs place third overall. Moravcova won the 100- and 200-yard freestyles, beating Fox in the former and setting a meet record in the latter, and bested Quance in the 200-yard individual medley, an event Quance had won twice in three years.

Southern Methodist also picked up help from Lia Oberstar, who won the 200-yard butterfly and placed in the top three in both backstrokes. Arizona finished fourth behind Trina Jackson's win in the 1,650-yard freestyle and Ashley Tappin's three top-four freestyle finishes. Georgia placed fifth and Michigan was sixth.

Auburn, which finished seventh, won the 200-yard medley relay and featured freshman Mimi Bowen, who captured the 100-yard butterfly.

In diving, Texas' Vera Ilyina won both the one- and three-meter events to be named diver of the year. Teammate Laura Wilkinson won the platform event and Longhorns diving coach Matt Scoggin was named diving coach of the year. Texas divers scored more than half of the Longhorns' total points.