LOS ANGELES – No. 4 Stanford survived a narrow decision against No. 10 USC, beating the Trojans, 151.5-148, in a Pac-12 dual meet at the Uytengsu Aquatics Center on Saturday.
"We saw a lot of energy and spirit today, and it was a great day for racing against a really strong USC team," said Goldman Family Director of Men's Swimming Ted Knapp. "We'll look to clean up a few things execution-wise as we head into the postseason."
The Cardinal (5-0, 4-0 Pac-12) fell behind early with second place in the 200-yard medley relay. Ryan Dudzinski, Matt Anderson, Andrew Liang and Sam Perry swam 1:26.02 and were narrowly edged by the Trojans (6-2, 2-2).
Stanford then swept the top three places in the 1,000-yard freestyle, led by Johannes Calloni (9:07:13) and followed by James Murphy (9:10.38) and Matthew Hirschberger (9:13.55) – the trio was over 12 seconds faster than any USC swimmer.
Liam Egan (1:37.24) finished second in the 200-yard freestyle, Ryan Dudzinski (48.09) placed third in the 100-yard backstroke and Matt Anderson (54.40) was runner up in the 100-yard breaststroke to give the Trojans the advantage before Brad Zdroik (1:45.19) won the 200-yard butterfly. Abrahm DeVine (1:46.67) followed him up in third place.
Andrew Liang (20.01) and Perry (20.04) were edged for second and third place, respectively, in the 50-yard freestyle before the first break of the dual. After the break, Perry (44.39) finished second in the 100-yard freestyle while Alberto Mestre (44.68) was third.
USC claimed the top two spots in the 200-yard backstroke, with Calloni (1:45.84) swimming Stanford's fastest time in third place. Anderson (1:58.76) and Brennan Pastorek (1:59.06) scored big points in the 200-yard breaststroke with a one-two finish before the Cardinal swept the top three spots in the 500-yard freestyle.
Shoults (4:22.30) led the way with Egan (4:22.54) finishing 0.24 seconds behind him and Sweetser (4:25.15) in third place – Shoults' 4:11.34 in the 500 free at the Texas Invitiational stands as the fastest time in the nation this season.
Andrew Liang (47.01) and Brad Zdroik (47.02) kept the momentum going with a top-two finish in the 100-yard butterfly. Alex Liang (1:48.45) was Stanford's fastest swimmer in the 200-yard individual medley, finishing second – DeVine (1:48.59) and Jack Walsh (1:49.46) rounded out the top four.
The Cardinal hung on to clinch the meet in the 400-yard freestyle relay, finishing second. Mestre, Perry, Cole Cogswell and Andrew Liang (2:56.11) were edged by .05 seconds.
Tarek Abdelghany continued his excellent form, winning the 1-meter springboard with the high score of 393.45 -- Ted Miclau (339.75) was fourth. On the 1-meter, Abdelghany (290.48) was fourth with Miclau (256.13) in fifth.
Stanford returns to action on Feb. 17 when it hosts Cal at Avery Aquatics Center. The meet will start at Noon PT, with Senior Day ceremonies taking place prior to the meet.
