Freshman Ledecky and her Stanford mates bury USC on Senior Day

In a corner of Stanford’s Avery Aquatic Center, a 12-year-old girl named Liza Mikacich watched with rapt attention as Katie Ledecky handily won her races Saturday.

“Her stroke is so different from everybody else’s,” Mikacich said. “It’s not really smooth. It’s like she’s chopping through the water. She powers through the water.”

Mikacich, a seventh-grader who swims for a club team in Sacramento, said she would try to copy that chopping style. She was among quite a few youngsters in the crowd of 1,400 on a fine sunny day.

It was a dual meet between the No. 2-ranked Cardinal and No. 4 USC, but it was really more of a going-away party for Stanford seniors Lia Neal, Nicole Stafford, Bridget Boushka and Tara Halsted than a competition. Stanford (7-0, 6-0 Pac-12) rolled by the absurd score of 202-98 over the defending Pac-12 champions (6-2, 4-2).

“To be honest, we were dreading this on our calendar,” USC coach Dave Salo said. “They should win the NCAAs. They should have won it last year. They had a bad relay.”

A disqualification in the 200-yard freestyle relay cost the Cardinal a national title, but since then they have added the greatest female swimmer in the world (Ledecky) in an elite freshman class, and Simone Manuel returned from her hiatus at the Olympics.

Neal, a two-time Olympic champion, called Ledecky “the cherry on top of a really damn good team with a lot of depth.” Tears streamed down Neal’s face as she discussed her final home meet. Her teammates and coaches “played such a major role in my life and helped shape me into the person I am today,” she said.

Neal won the 100 free and took second in the 50 and 200 to teammate Manuel, who broke Ledecky’s day-old pool record in 1:42.72 in the latter. Neal also anchored the 400 freestyle relay team, which set a pool record of 3:15.05.

Stanford's Katie Ledecky prepares to swim in the Women's 500 Yard Freestyle during a swim meet against USC in front of a crowd at Avery Aquatic Center on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2017 in Stanford, Calif. Stanford's Katie Ledecky prepares to swim in the Women's 500 Yard Freestyle during a swim meet against USC in front of a crowd at Avery Aquatic Center on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2017 in Stanford, Calif. Photo: Tony Avelar, Special To The Chronicle Photo: Tony Avelar, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 34 Caption Close Freshman Ledecky and her Stanford mates bury USC on Senior Day 1 / 34 Back to Gallery

Stanford head coach Greg Meehan said it was Neal who started the program’s rise to the top when she committed to the school five years ago, when he had been on the job two months. “When she said she was coming to Stanford, it made it OK for everybody else,” he said.

Ledecky won the 1,000 and the 500 free, and helped power the 400 free relay to victory. Junior Janet Hu set a pool record of 51.91 in the 100 backstroke, won the 100 butterfly and helped the winning 200 medley. USC won just three of the 16 events, and two of them were by breaststroker Riley Scott of Petaluma.

Ledecky was not available to the media, as has been the case throughout her freshman season. Meehan said the five-time Olympic gold medalist and her family wanted to “give her a sense of normalcy” in her first year on campus. “It was important that we let Katie be herself and get integrated into the Stanford culture,” he said.

Her parents, David and Mary, were sitting in the stands, but they politely declined interviews on how their famous daughter has adjusted to college life, saying they wanted the focus to be on her, not them. Even one of her three dorm roommates, freshman Emily Ruan, sitting on the opposite side of the stadium, said she “didn’t feel comfortable” talking about Ledecky’s personal life.

Meehan said she’ll talk to the media at the Pac-12 meet Feb. 22-25 in Federal Way, Wash., and the NCAA championships March 15-18 in Indianapolis. Stanford is an odds-on favorite to win both events. The Cardinal have won nine national titles but none since 1998.

On the prospect of Stanford finally breaking through, Neal said, “It’s about time. From coming in second my freshman year, third as a sophomore and second again last year, we’re in a really good position to come in first.”

Tom FitzGerald is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tfitzgerald@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @tomgfitzgerald