BERKELEY, Calif. - No. 10 Stanford fell to No. 2 California on Saturday in the final dual meet of the regular season, 156-142. The Cardinal finishes the regular dual meet season at 4-2 while California finishes 6-1.
Stanford started the meet strong, taking second place in the 200 medley relay behind a great effort from Leon MacAlister, Ron Polonsky, Andrei Minakov, and Rafael Gu. The quartet recorded a 1:24.00 in the event, an NCAA B Standard Cut as well as the fastest time for the Cardinal so far this year.
In the 1000 free, Gabe Machado and Liam Custer finished in third and fourth, both recording season-best times in the event at 9:06.17 and 9:09.00 respectively.
Luke Maurer and Preston Forst finished first and second in the 200 free as both notched season-best marks as well at 1:34.04 and 1:34.16. Forst earned his own event title later in the meet, taking the 500 free with a time of 4:16.79.
Ron Polonsky and Zhier Fan added another one-two finish for Stanford in the 100 breast, going 51.77 and 52.66, a season-best and B Standard Cut for Polonsky and just 0.03 seconds off a season-best effort for Fan.
Zhier Fan repeated in second place in the 200 breast, behind California's Reece Whitley in first. Ethan Dang came in just behind Fan for bronze.
In the 100 free, Andrei Minakov outtouched Jack Alexy from California to take the event win with a 42.20. Luke Maurer added a third-place finish for the Cardinal, coming in at 43.06.
Stanford finished with three in the top four of the 100 fly, as Rafael Gu clocked a two-second season-best time of 45.77 for silver. Jonathan Affeld and Ethan Hu added more points for the Cardinal, coming in third and fourth in the event.
Jack Ryan earned his eighth and ninth individual event titles of the season, taking both the 1-meter and 3-meter wins. On the 1-meter, the sophomore scored a 381.08 to beat out Joshua Thai from California. Hunter Hollenbeck and Ethan Foster finished in third and fourth on the 1-meter as well.
On the 3-meter, Ryan recorded a 395.63 for gold while Peyton Donald took second with a score of 319.20.
Stanford closed out the meet with a strong swim in the 400 free relay as Rafael Gu, Leon MacAlister, Luke Maurer, and Andrei Minakov combined for second place and a 2:48.40, a season-best mark and an NCAA A Standard Cut.
The Cardinal divers return to action at the Pac-12 Men's Diving Championships next weekend, while the swimmers will compete in the swimming championships March 1-4.
