FEDERAL WAY, Wash. - Stanford came out firing on all cylinders to begin the Pac-12 Championships. The Cardinal claimed the first relay victory of the meet, winning the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:22.74.
Leon MacAlister led off the backstroke, followed by freshmen Ron Polonsky and Andrei Minakov in the breaststroke and butterfly before Jonny Affeld sealed the victory in the freestyle. Affeld out touched the Arizona State relay by two tenths of a second.
In the 800 free relay, Arizona State led the way, but Stanford was close behind. Both teams broke the previous meet record of 6:10.94, with the Cardinal swimming a blistering 6:08.73, just over a second behind the Sun Devils. Luke Maurer, Leon MacAlister, Ron Polonsky, and Preston Forst combined for the silver in the event.
Both relay times were program records for Stanford. The 200 medley relay broke the previous record of 1:23.14 that was set in 2009 by almost half of a second. The 800 free relay team shaved nearly four seconds off the time of 6:12.66 set back in 2017.
Stanford currently holds the lead in the meet with 207 points following the three diving events that took place last weekend and the first relays. Utah is in second place with 183.
The Cardinal are back in action tomorrow in the 500 free, 200 I.M., 50 free, and 200 free relay.