Farm Report: March 31Farm Report: March 31
Athletics

Farm Report: March 31

A weekly recap of all things Stanford Athletics, featuring top stories and key highlights from the past week.

Artistic Swimming Claims 10th National Title

Artistic Swimming Claims 10th National Title

      

With a plethora of team points spread across Stanford and its competitors, the battle for the National Championship came down to the final event group - the team event.

Stanford proceeded to take matters into its own hands as the group of Miko Begossi, Ivy Davis, Elian Liu, Schroeder, Field, Kwon, Ovadia took the top spot and the team event title to put Stanford in the driver's seat. With a fourth place showing from the group of Elisa Brunel, Yujin Chang, Haley Chu, Emily Ding, Cambell McMillan, Atira O'Neil, Manu Pindi and Ella Rau, Stanford received enough delcared points to secure its first national title since 2021 and its 10th as a program. 

For her efforts, Dalia Ovadia was named the meet’s High Point Scorer, factoring into each of Stanford’s three event crowns. Ovadia teamed with Megumi Field to win the duet title before joining Field and Audrey Kwon as trio champions.

Head coach Megan Abarca, who has now guided Stanford to two national championships, was named Coach of the Year.

The artistic swimming program is one of only six programs on The Farm with at least 10 national championships, joining women's tennis (21), men's tennis (18), men's water polo (12), women's swimming and diving (12) and men's gymnastics (10).

 

Card Eighth at NCAA Championships

Card Eighth at NCAA Championships

    

Day 1:

Stanford diver Jack Ryan placed second and swimmer Ron Polonsky fifth at the NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships on Thursday at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center.

Ryan, a senior, earned his highest NCAA finish by scoring 417.45 points in the 1-meter diving final, giving Stanford its best placing in that event since Olympic medalist Kristian Ipsen was second in 2014. Ryan also joined Ipsen as the only divers in school history to collect three or more first-team All-America honors at 1-meter.

Day 2:

In individual championship finals, Ron Polonsky was fifth in the 100-yard breaststroke, Andrei Minakov was sixth in the 100 butterfly, and Henry McFadden was eighth in the 200 free at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center.

The Cardinal placed fifth in the 400 medley relay in a school record 3:00.91. The team was: Aaron Sequeira, Ron Polonsky, Andrei Minakov, and Andres Dupont Cabrera.

A day after placing second at 1-meter, Ryan finished third, earning his fifth top-four NCAA placing.

Day 3:

Seniors Andrei Minakov and Ron Polonsky closed out their Stanford careers spectacularly Saturday at the conclusion of the four-day NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center.

Minakov was fourth in the 200-yard butterfly to give Stanford its highest individual swimming finish of the meet. Combined with his part on the Cardinal’s 10th-place 400 freestyle relay finish, Minakov earned eight All-America honors during this meet.

For his collegiate career, Minakov earned 26 All-America honors, tying him with Brian Retterer (1991-95) for the most in Stanford history.

Polonsky, who has 23 All-America honors of his own, broke the Stanford record in the 200 breaststroke, clocking 1:50.95 while placing fourth in the consolation final and 12th overall. It marked the fifth school record Polonsky had broken during this meet, along with the 100 breast, 800 free relay, 200 medley relay, and 400 medley relay.

WGOLF Wins the Charles Schwab Women's Collegiate

Comeback Card Close It Out

     

After heading into the final round three strokes off the lead, top-ranked Stanford women’s golf showed its greatest resiliency of the season in the face of adversity. The Card battled through the par-70 course at Colonial Country Club to erase a three-stroke deficit and win the Charles Schwab Women’s Collegiate, the only team to finish the tournament at par.

This marks the sixth win of the season for Stanford, tying the 2020-21 and 2021-22 teams that also had six wins. Only the 2022-23 team had more tournaments in one season (7). Stanford also has won every stroke play tournament it has entered this year, and with three postseason tournaments remaining, is attempting to join the 1995 Arizona State Sun Devils as the only teams to complete an unbeaten season.

 

Daria Gusarova Celebration

Top-10 Victories at Death Volley Invitational

       

No. 5 Stanford collected two top-10 victories Friday, topping No. 7 Florida State 3-2 and No. 8 Texas 4-1. 

No. 5 Stanford finished its time in Louisiana on a high note, sweeping host No. 11 LSU 3-0 Saturday morning. The match was played to decision due to impending inclement weather in the area of the LSU campus.  

Stanford left Louisiana with a 3-1 record to move to 16-6 on the year. 

Men’s Tennis Completes 3-0 Week

Men’s Tennis Completes 3-0 Week

       

No. 9 Stanford men’s tennis won for the sixth time in its last seven matches, downing Georgetown, 4-0, at the Junior Tennis Champions Center. Stanford improves to 14-5 this season with the win.

No. 9 Stanford men’s tennis rolled to its sixth ACC victory of the season, downing host No. 61 SMU, 4-0. Stanford improves to 15-5 this season and 6-3 in the ACC.

No. 9 Stanford men’s tennis continued its winning ways in the ACC, downing Boston College, 4-0, on Sunday at the Weymouth Club. Stanford improves to 16-5 this season and 7-3 in the ACC.

Kai Schmitt, Moses Wagner, Theo Snoey, Ryan DuRoss

Cardinal Sweeps Series

       

Theo Snoey had a match-high 19 kills to lead No. 12 Stanford in a 25-22, 25-23, 25-23 win over Menlo College, Saturday, at Maples Pavilion.

Stanford (9-10, 2-4 MPSF) swept the Oaks (7-12, 1-5 MPSF) for a second consecutive night, playing in Atherton on Friday. The Cardinal hit .395 as a team – its second-highest output of the season, and finished with 46 kills, 22 digs, five aces and 8.0 blocks.

 

Chidimma Okpara

Successful Florida Swing

          

No. 28 Stanford resumed its 12-day, east coast road swing with a 4-3 victory at No. 69 Miami on Friday afternoon.

Chidimma Okpara delivered the clincher, her third of the season, with a 6-4, 6-1 victory at No. 5.

No. 28 Stanford concluded its 12-day road trip with a 4-1 win at No. 65 Florida State on Sunday afternoon.

The Cardinal finished its first east coast trek as an ACC member with a 3-1 record. Stanford is now 13-4 overall and 6-2 in conference heading into its final regular-season home weekend against No. 4 North Carolina and No. 9 Duke.

 

Sophie Fisher Ashtyn Tierney

Two Top-3 Finishes

    

No. 2 Stanford sailing wrapped up a busy weekend of competition on the Northeast waters, securing a pair of top-3 finishes at the Dellenbaugh Trophy Women's Team Race and Marchiando Trophy Open Team Race. 

The Dellenbaugh Women's Team Race, hosted by Brown, saw the Cardinal record a 12-3 weekend record to finish second in the event, falling one race short of champion Yale. The competition began with a 10-team round-robin on Saturday, where Stanford registered six wins against the field to qualify for the Gold Top 4 alongside Brown, Harvard, and Yale. 

The second portion of the competition included two rounds of Gold Top 4 races, where Stanford went a combined 6-0 against the top teams in the weekend. A third round of Gold Top 4 races was slated to take place on Sunday afternoon, but conditions wouldn't cooperate and Yale was deemed the winner after riding an undefeated round-robin record to a regatta-leading 13 wins. 

Varsity Four Big Row 2024 Web

Dominant Victories in Tennessee

    

No. 2 Stanford dominated its spring racing opener, sweeping No. 3 Tennessee on Melton Hill Lake on Saturday morning. 

In a matchup between last years national runner-up and third-place finisher, Stanford set the tone early in the second varsity four race, winning by seven seconds over Tennessee’s second varsity four and by 11 seconds over the Lady Vols’ third varsity four.

Stanford's second varsity eight extended the winning streak with a four-second margin of victory before the varsity eight closed out the morning with the largest win of the day, crossing the finish line more than nine seconds ahead of Tennessee.

The TreeCast Episode 226: Changes for Football, Titles for Gymnastics

The TreeCast Episode 226: Changes for Football, Titles for Gymnastics

                    

A full week of news is here, as changes are ahead for Stanford Football and the seasons wrap for Stanford Men's & Women's Basketball. Meanwhile, Stanford Women's Gymnastics brings the school its first ACC title! Junior Anna Roberts tells us how the squad made it happen in Greensboro, and how it can keep making history at next week's NCAA Regionals. Also, Knowles Family Director of Men's Golf Conrad Ray looks at his team's season so far and previews The Goodwin this week.

Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, or listen directly in the GoStanford app!