FEDERAL WAY, Wash. - The Cardinal finished third overall with 615.5 points in the Pac-12 Championship meet, trailing Arizona State and California. Stanford finished the fourth day of the conference championships with 22 more swims in finals heats.
The day's finals session began at 4 p.m. with the 1,650 free, which featured five Stanford swimmers. Gabe Machado was the Cardinal's top finisher in the event, taking fourth overall and a time of 14:50.02 and Stanford's 15th-fastest time ever.
Liam Custer took seventh in the 1,650, swimming a 14:59.05, more than 15 seconds faster than his previous best time this season. Matt Fenlon (15:16.06) took 12th, followed by Andrew Matejka (15:18.03) in 13th, while Henry Morrissey (15:20.44) added a 15th place finish.
In the 200 back, three Cardinal swimmers secured spots in the A final. Aaron Sequeira led the way, earning fifth with a 1:39.94 and the fifth-fastest time in program history. Leon MacAlister (1:40.16) was right behind him in sixth and Josh Zuchowski (1:40.68) took seventh in the top heat.
Hayden Kwan (1:41.37) and Shane Blinkman (1:43.59) added two finishes in the B final, taking third and sixth respectively.
The 100 free saw Andrei Minakov as Stanford's top performer, as the Olympian took sixth in the A final with a time of 42.01. Luke Maurer (42.27) won the B final and moved up to seventh all-time in Stanford history with a new personal best.
Andres Dupont (42.29) claimed second right behind his teammate, swimming the eighth-best time in program history. Rafael Gu (43.17) added an eighth place finish in the B final while Avery Voss (42.99) took third in the C final.
In the 200 breast, Ron Polonsky was the Cardinal's top swimmer, taking seventh in the A final with a time of 1:53.53. Ethan Dang (1:54.01) finished second in the B final while Zhier Fan (1:56.92) added a fifth-place finish in the heat as well.
Stanford had two swimmers in the A final of the 200 fly, Jonathan Affeld and Ethan Hu. Affeld finished with a 1:42.83 to take sixth overall, while Hu finished in eighth with a 1:44.03.
Rick Mihm (1:44.30) earned silver in the B final, while Matt Fenlon (1:45.47) finished in fifth.
The final event of the meet was the 400 free relay and featured an A final team of Andres Dupont, Andrei Minakov, Ron Polonsky, and Luke Maurer. The quartet touched third after Arizona State and California, but the relay was disqualified due to a false start.
Stanford returns to action at the Diving Zone E competition, taking place March 6-8. The full team is back in action for the final time this postseason, competing in the NCAA Championships from March 22-25 in Minneapolis.
