ATLANTA - Andrei Minakov stole the show on Friday, winning the 100 fly with a time of 43.71. This was Stanford's first individual NCAA Champion of the meet, and first NCAA Champion since 2018.
"I'm really proud of Andrei and how he swam that race and got his hand on the wall," said the Goldman Family Director of Men's Swimming, Dan Schemmel. "It's not easy coming off an Olympic year and the high of that, and then moving to a new country, experiencing a new culture and going through the college season with it being as long as it is."
Minakov has been productive all season, but is having his best swims in a Stanford cap this weekend. Earlier on Friday, he set the Stanford and the pool record in the event, clocking a 43.77 at prelims before resetting the mark in finals. His finals swim was his third time under 44 seconds in the event, building on his legacy as one of the premier butterfly swimmers in the world.
"That win is a testament to his work ethic, his commitment to the team and his passion for the sport and his teammates," added Schemmel. "We're just incredibly grateful to have him here with us and we know he is going to continue representing us at the highest level moving forward."
Minakov wasn't the only Stanford student-athlete who put on an impressive display on day three. Five Cardinal swimmers and divers competed in finals and six others had great showings in the preliminary session.
"I'm really proud of the way the guys fought through the day," said Schemmel. "It was another very fast prelims session and thankfully we got the job done and got ourselves into some scoring swims tonight."
Ron Polonsky finished with a time of 3:40.41 in the 400 IM, good for fourth place in the B final. This marked Polonsky's second individual swim scoring points for the Cardinal.
"A big shoutout to Ron in the 400 IM," said Schemmel. "Going two of his best times and then he swam a great leg on the 400 medley relay at the end."
Luke Maurer swam a best time by more than half of a second in the 200 free, swimming a 1:22.58 during the prelims session. This swim set him up to take 14th in finals and moved him to second all-time in the Stanford record book in the event.
Leon MacAlister also had an impressive day, swimming under 45 seconds in the 100 back during both prelims and finals. The junior now sits second in Stanford history in the event, only 11 one-hundreths of a second behind David Nolan's time from 2015.
"Also a big shoutout to Luke Maurer for getting himself into a scoring swim in the 200 free, he had a big drop and it was just an awesome swim," added Schemmel. "And Leon posting three of his fastest 100 backs today was just incredible."
In the diving pool, Conor Casey and Jack Ryan performed well again, with the former advancing to the consolation final and ultimately finishing in 12th place.
"Both Jack and Conor fought hard during the preliminary rounds," said Schemmel. "It was so awesome for Conor to make the consolation final and score some points while finishing his Stanford career."
After day three, Stanford has a total of 159 points, good for seventh place.
"Tomorrow's going to be tough, but we have a tough group and they are hungry," added Schemmel. "It should be another great day for us."