AUSTIN, Texas – A win by Abrahm DeVine in the 200-yard individual medley punctuated a strong showing by Stanford on Thursday night at the Texas Invitational.
"We were very happy with this morning's preliminary session which will be significant, come March," said Goldman Family Director of Men's Swimming Ted Knapp. "Most of our guys came back at night and swam even faster, so we're extremely pleased with how today went."
Stanford finished fifth in the first event of the night, the 200-yard freestyle relay. Sam Perry, Cole Cogswell, Patrick Conaton and Spencer DeShon (1:18.95) represented the Cardinal, while a "B" team of Andrew Liang, Brad Zdroik, Matt Anderson and Benjamin Ho (1:18.95) were not far behind in sixth place.
Great showing in the 500 free final. Shoults, Sweetser, Egan and Murphy all improve on prelim time. #GoStanford pic.twitter.com/VGP7UmumKI
— Stanford Swimming (@stanfordmswim) December 2, 2016
Four Cardinal swimmers -- Liam Egan, True Sweetser, Grant Shoults and James Murphy -- earned a spot in the 500-yard freestyle final with strong performances in prelims. In the finals session, each man dropped time from the morning, with Shoults (4:12.03) leading the way in second place.
Sweetser (4:12.97) and Egan (4:12.99) rounded out the top four, while Murphy (4:18.54) swam a personal best to take seventh. Shoults, Sweetser and Egan were all under the NCAA "A" standard.
Abrahm DeVine (1:43.02) wins the 200 IM! ?????? #GoStanford pic.twitter.com/XaIFeINyHw
— Stanford Swimming (@stanfordmswim) December 2, 2016
DeVine (1:43.02) shaved nearly two seconds off his preliminary time to win the 200 IM. Tom Kremer (1:44.58) finished third, Curtis Ogren (1:44.62) took fourth, Maxwell Williamson (1:44.85) was fifth and Justin Buck (1:46.50) improved his qualifying time to finish seventh. In the B-final, Jack Walsh (1:46.60) finished third with William Macmillan (1:49.33) in eighth.
Sam Perry (19.53) finished fourth in the 50-yard freestyle final, with Cole Cogswell (19.90) dropping time from the morning to finish third in the B-final.
Stanford wraps up Day 2 of the Texas Invitational with a 3rd place finish in the 400 medley relay. #GoStanford pic.twitter.com/4ydBU6LlVA
— Stanford Swimming (@stanfordmswim) December 2, 2016
Ryan Dudzinski, Matt Anderson, Andrew Liang and Perry (3:07.48) swam an A-cut in the 400-yard medley relay to finish third in the final swim of the day. Stanford's "B" team of Conaton, Ogren, Yoder and Kremer (3:11.19) finished seventh, while the all-freshman "C" squad of Ho, Hank Poppe, William Macmillan and Grant Shoults (3:15.73) were 13th.
The Cardinal returns to action Friday morning in preliminaries, beginning at 8 a.m. PT. Events include the 100-yard butterfly, the 400-yard individual medley, the 200-yard freestyle, the 100-yard breaststroke and the 100-yard backstroke. Friday's evening session will also include the 200-yard medley relay.
The four-day meet, which has an environment similar to that of the Pac-12 and NCAA Championship meets, will feature hosts Texas, USC, Arizona, Brigham Young, Harvard, Denver and Oklahoma Baptist.
Longhorn Network (ESPN) will air live coverage of all "A" final heats during the Saturday finals session and tape-delayed coverage from the Friday evening finals session.
Live stats will be available at GoStanford.com.