Shoults Shines on Day 2Shoults Shines on Day 2
Men's Swimming & Diving

Shoults Shines on Day 2

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INDIANAPOLIS – Multiple first-team All-America honors and an all-around team effort propelled Stanford up to sixth place on Thursday at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships.

"We were pretty happy with the racing from our guys tonight," said Goldman Family Director of Men's Swimming Ted Knapp. "The plan for tomorrow is to have even more swimmers qualify for tomorrow's finals."

The day started with the 200-yard freestyle relay, with the team of Sam Perry, Andrew Liang, Spencer DeShon and Tom Kremer (1:17.14) representing the Cardinal. In preliminaries, Stanford finished 10th, earning the second seed in the B-final.

Stanford held its place in the B-final, finishing second for 10th place overall and an All-America honorable mention. Perry, Liang, Cole Cogswell and Kremer (1:16.96) improved Stanford's time by nearly .20 seconds.

Grant Shoults (4:12.14) was Stanford's fastest man in 500-yard freestyle prelims, earning the seventh seed in the A-final. Liam Egan (4:13.12) and True Sweetser (4:13.47) finished 11th and 13th, respectively, earning places in the B-final.

Shoults re-set his own program record (4:10.23) in the finals, earning his first career individual All-America selection with first-team honors. Shoults' previous school record of 4:10.67 was good enough for him to win the Pac-12 Championships three weeks ago. Egan (4:12.36) picked up his second consecutive All-America honor in the 500 free by winning the B-final for ninth place. Sweetser (4:20.31) also earned an All-America honorable mention in 16th place.

Abrahm DeVine (1:42.25) missed the 200-yard individual medley A-final by .01, finishing ninth in prelims. Tom Kremer (1:42.27) was just behind him in 10th place, also earning a place in the B-final. Curtis Ogren (1:44.44) finished 22nd in prelims with Maxwell Williamson (1:44.71) in 26th place. Both of Kremer and DeVine's 200 IM prelim times were personal bests. 

In the B-final, Kremer (1:42.34) out-touched DeVine for second place and 10th overall. DeVine (1:42.47) finished third in the race and 11th overall, with both swimmers picking up All-America honorable mentions. For Kremer, it was the 19th All-America honor in his Stanford career and the third of the meet.

Sam Perry set a personal best in the 50-yard freestyle twice on Thursday, starting in prelims. Shoults swam 19.15 in the morning heat, the 13th fastest time in the field. In the B-final, Perry improved his time to 19.13 and his finish to 12th, moving him up to fifth on Stanford's all-time list.

Patrick Conaton swam a personal best (19.97) in 50 free prelims, finishing 45th. Brad Zdroik also swam prelims, finishing 49th (20.24).

Stanford had three representatives in the 1-meter springboard prelim. Bradley Christensen (302.50) was the Cardinal's highest finisher in 25th place. Cameron Thatcher (273.80) finished 38th in his NCAA debut, and Ted Miclau (271.05) was right behind him in 39th place.

Stanford's team of Ryan Dudzinski, Anderson, Andrew Liang and Perry (3:04.90) earned a place the 400-yard medley relay A-final by finishing seventh in prelims. In the A-final, the same quartet from prelims improved its time (3:04.46) to gain first-team All-America honors in seventh place. It was the first first-team honor for all four swimmers.

With two days left, the Cardinal (105 points) sits in sixth place behind Indiana (121), North Carolina State (123), Florida (138.5), California (143) and Texas (225.5).

Stanford returns to the pool tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. PT with preliminaries. Tomorrow's events include the 400-yard individual medley, the 100-yard butterfly, the 200-yard freestyle, the 100-yard breaststroke, the 100-yard backstroke, 3-meter diving and the 200-yard medley relay.

Fifteen minutes following 3-meter prelims, the 3-meter consolation final will take place (9-16). The evening finals session is set to begin at 3 p.m. with the 400 IM. Streaming of tomorrow's prelims and can be found at the championship microsite, and ESPN3 will stream tomorrow's final session. Live results are available at GoStanford.com.

Day 3 Notes

  • Stanford has three swimmers competing in the 400 IM – DeVine, Ogren and Williamson. The trio sits 1-2-3 on Stanford's all-time top times list.
  • DeVine (3:41.64) sits 10th on the psych sheet with Ogren (3:42.04) 11th and Williamson (3:42.53) 13th.
  • Last season, DeVine (3:42.02) finished sixth in the 400 IM, earning his first-career All-America honor. In prelims, he set a program record with 3:40.06.
  • DeVine (3:41.76) finished second at Pac-12's three weeks ago, with Williamson (3:44.61) in fourth and Ogren (3:48.54) in eighth. Williamson dropped more than four seconds from his prelim time at Pac-12's.
  • Liang (45.52) leads Stanford in the 100 fly with an A-cut, which he swam at the Pac-12 Championship for third place.
  • Perry and Brad Zdroik will also swim the 100 fly. Perry (46.30) was invited with a B-cut, while Zdroik (45.91) swam the 16th-fastest time in the nation at the Pac-12 Championships in time trials – Zdroik's own breakthrough served as a spark for the entire squad, which went on to win the meet.
  • Shoults (1:33.36) owns the fastest 200 free time on the team, clocking in with the 13th-fastest time in the nation. His time currently sits fifth in school history.
  • Kremer (1:33.69) sits 19th on the psych sheet in the 200 free, and owns the second fastest time (1:33.07) in school history. Kremer is a three-time All-American in the event, finishing third in 2013, ninth in 2014 and sixth in 2015.
  • Liam Egan (1:35.14) and True Sweetser (1:36.33) will also swim the 200 free, giving Stanford four entries in the event.
  • Anderson (52.69) is Stanford's lone qualifier in the 100 breast. The sophomore finished fifth at the Pac-12 Championship, placing himself at No. 5 on Stanford's all-time list.
  • Ryan Dudzinski (45.84), Andrew Liang (46.17) and Patrick Conaton (47.11) will swim the 100 back. At the Pac-12 Championships, Dudzinski placed fourth, while his preliminary time was good for fifth on the Cardinal's all-time list.
  • Christensen (748.60) won the 3-meter qualifier at the NCAA Zone E Championships, finishing fourth at Pac-12's. Thatcher, Miclau and Abdelghany are all scheduled to compete on the 3-meter as well.
  • Stanford's 200 medley relay time (1:23.62) sits eighth on the psych sheet ahead of Day 3. At the Pac-12 Championships, Dudzinski, Anderson, Liang and Perry swam the event.