STANFORD, Calif. – No. 5 Stanford kicked off 2018 with a 217.5-44.5 win over Pacific on Friday at Avery Aquatics Center.
"Today was a good challenge for us with everyone swimming four events on not a lot of rest. If the times were there, that's wonderful, but today was more focused on the quality of our strokes and sets, and I was pleased with how we performed," said Goldman Family Director of Men's Swimming Ted Knapp. "We looked at this week as an extension of our holiday training and I was extremely happy with what has come of all the hard work this group put in over the break."
The dual meet, which featured non-traditional events such as the 150-yard breaststroke and 600-yard freestyle, started with a Cardinal win in the 400-yard medley relay. Stanford's quartet of Ryan Dudzinski, Matt Anderson, Andrew Liang and Sam Perry (3:15.14) had the top time, followed by Glen Cowand, Hank Poppe, Brad Zdroik and Abrahm DeVine (3:17.93) in second.
The Cardinal then claimed the top four times in the 600 free, led by True Sweetser (5:23.81). James Murphy (5:29.30), Johannes Calloni and Matthew Hirschberger (5:34.01) followed Sweetser for the top-four sweep.
Grant Shoults (1:11.56) won the 150-yard freestyle, followed by Cole Cogswell (1:11.91) in second and Alberto Mestre (1:12.88) in third. DeVine (22.42) won the 50-yard backstroke, while Benjamin Ho (22.95) and Jack Walsh (23.49) finished second and third, respectively.
Anderson (25.72) edged Hank Poppe (25.78) for the 50-yard breaststroke before Andrew Liang (1:18.10) narrowly beat out younger brother Alex Liang (1:18.16) in the 150-yard butterfly.
Ho (20.79) was Stanford's fastest man in the 50-yard freestyle with Cogswell (20.93) in second, Mestre (20.94) in third and Dudzinski (20.99) in fourth.
After a 15-minute break, Cogswell (45.47) got his win in the 100-yard freestyle with Shoults (46.91) in third place. DeVine (1:16.04) led Stanford's top-four sweep in the 150-yard backstroke, followed by Ho (1:17.47), Calloni (1:19.03) and Ogren (1:19.47).
The 150-yard breaststroke ended in a narrow finish between three Cardinal swimmers – Poppe (1:27.92) swam fastest, followed by Anderson (1:28.25) and Brennan Pastorek (1:28.26).
Sweetser (2:36.33) won his second event of the day in the 300-yard freestyle, and three Stanford swimmers filled out the top four -- Murphy (2:38.37), Egan (2:41.41) and Hirschberger (2:43.03).
Andrew Liang (21.52) won his second event of the day in the 50-yard butterfly, followed by Dudzinski (22.26), Zdroik (22.41) and Perry (22.56).
DeVine (1:48.28) won the 200-yard individual medley, the final individual event of the day and his third individual win. Pastorek (1:50.06), Ogren (1:50.61), Ho (1:50.92) and Walsh (1:52.03) completed the top five. Stanford finished one-two in the final event of the day, the 400-yard freestyle relay. Hirschberger, Perry, Zdroik and Cowand (3:02.24) won the race with the team of Greenberg, Cogswell, Murphy and Sweetser (3:03.87) in second.
"We look forward to hosting Arizona and Arizona State next week. With our winter training coming to a close, we're all looking forward to racing some Pac-12 schools and preparing for the postseason meets," said Knapp.
Stanford returns to action next week when it hosts coed conference dual meets against Arizona at 2 p.m. PT on Friday and Arizona State at Noon on Saturday.
