March 28, 2013
INDIANAPOLIS - David Nolan and Kristian Ipsen each earned a national title for Stanford to start off the NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships. The sophomore duo paced Stanford to a tie for seventh overall with 81 points through six events Thursday at the IU Natatorium.
Ipsen won the 1-meter title with Nolan doing the deed in the 200 IM.
"We're proud of the outstanding efforts by both David and Kristian today," Goldman Family Director of Men's Swimming Ted Knapp said. "They are very inspirational NCAA champions and team leaders. David's relay and individual swims showed tremendous improvement from last year and Kristian's NCAA record speaks for itself. Our team is looking forward to continuing the meet tomorrow."
Michigan (153 pts.) lead the field with Cal (123.5), Auburn (112.5), USC (100) and Texas (99) rounding out the top five. Stanford is tied with Arizona for seventh behind sixth-place Florida (97).
Ipsen posted an NCAA meet record in the 1-meter with 473.75 points, bettering the previous benchmark set by Purdue's David Boudia (486.65) in 2010. The Olympian was first through the prelims with 390.25 points and finished comfortably ahead of Duke's Nick McCrory (436.60) in the finals.
The performance was good for Stanford's second 1-meter title in program history. Ipsen joins Ed Thorndsen with the distinction, as Thorndsen copped the honor with a 109.20 for the 1930 title.
"When I'm diving, I only focus on two points per dive, so I didn't even have the record in mind," Ipsen said.
Ipsen won the 3-meter in 2012 and looks to defend that crown when the meet continues Friday.
Connor Kuremsky (17th - 324.95), Noah Garcia (19th - 317.55) and Taylor Sishc (23rd - 309.75) gave Stanford an amazing four divers in the top 25.
Nolan's 1:43.27 put him fourth after the prelims and Tom Kremer (1:43.71) was 10th. Kremer moved up a spot by winning the consolation final in 1:43.15 for ninth.
Nolan, who was third in the event as a freshman, responded with a school-record 1:41.21 for his first NCAA title. Florida's Marcin Cieslak (1:41.45) was second.
"This morning hurt a little bit more than I expected but you just got to bounce back and hope your training will take care of it, and tonight it did," Nolan said. "I'm pretty aware of what's going on in the pool ... I like to swim my own race though. I'll use anyone who might be in front of me [to catch] in the last 50."
Nolan's lifetime best came two years after setting a national high school record of 1:41.39 in the 200 IM during his senior prep season. The title was Stanford's NCAA-leading 10th win in the history of the event, as the sophomore joined George Harrison (1959), Dick Roth (1967), Pablo Morales (1985, 1986, 1987), Jeff Rouse (1992), Tom Wilkens (1998), Markus Rogan (2002) and Austin Staab (2011) as past winners.
The host of Cardinal in the event also included Jack Lane (26th - 1:45.18), Matthew Thompson (26th - 1:45.18), Gray Umbach (47th - 1:46.83) and Will Gunderson (51st - 1:47.22).
Stanford was fourth in the 200 free relay (1:17.03) prelims and touched sixth in the finals with a 1:16.99. Nolan started the relay in front of Aaron Wayne, Jack Lane and Andrew Saeta.
Danny Thomson debuted with a 16th-place 4:17.42 in the 500 free prelims and earned All-America honors by going 4:16.98 for 11th in the finals. Drew Cosgarea (33rd - 4:21.07), Bryan Offutt (42nd - 4:23.25) and Chris Pickard (47th - 4:25.43) picked up top-50 showings.
Wayne was 24th in the 50 free after touching in 19.75 and Saeta (19.85) shelved a 34th-place finish. USC's Vlad Morozov, who posted a 17.86 split in the 200 free relay, won the 50 free in 18.63. Morozov split an 8.99 at the turn.
The Cardinal was disqualified from the 400 medley relay when Wayne left the blocks early.
-- #goStanford --