DALLAS — The first four-day meet of the season wrapped up on Saturday in Dallas as No. 7 Stanford men’s swimming completed the SMU Invitational. Despite not having the most swimmers in the field, Stanford finished first among the seven teams in the field, thanks to an incredible week of winners and top times.
Wednesday featured a pair of relays, with Stanford taking first in both. The 200 medley relay featured Ethan Harrington, Zhier Fan, Rafael Gu, and Jonathan Tan, and the Cardinal had to come from behind. 100 yards in, Stanford trailed SMU’s A-Team, but a 20.16 split from Gu in the 50 fly portion put Stanford ahead, and then Tan posted an 18.71 in the final leg to secure the win with a time of 1:23.83. In the 800 free relay, Ethan Ekk, Andres Dupont Cabrera, Jason Zhao, and Henry McFadden led wire-to-wire with a time of 6:13.35, a near-three-second win for Stanford. The 800 free relay win cleared the NCAA qualifying mark by nearly 2.5 seconds.
Things heated up on the second day, as Stanford dominated the field. Gu set a new PR in the 100 fly to win the finals with a time of 44.83, the third-fastest time in Stanford history. That mark is also the fourth-fastest in the NCAA this season and easily the best in the ACC. It got better in the 400 IM when Ekk posted the second-fastest time in the NCAA this season, winning with a 3:42.01. That time is the seventh best in Stanford history, and yet another entry in the record book for the freshman.
Later in the day, McFadden finished atop the leaderboard in the 200 free with a time of 1:33.33, and Fan won the 100 breast at 51.28. Fan’s time was particularly impressive; it is the second-fastest time in the NCAA this season and ties his own PR, which stands second all-time at Stanford. Day two closed with Stanford setting the ACC pace in the 200 free relay with a 1:16.31 thanks to Harrington, Tan, Dupont Cabrera, and Gu. That is the first NCAA qualifying standard in the 200 free relay for the Cardinal this year.
Friday’s action saw Daniel Li score his first win of the week in the 200 breast with a time of 1:51.88, just shy of a PR. The current owner of the third-fastest 200 breast time in Stanford history now owns the fourth, in addition. Ekk continued his strong start to his collegiate career with a 4:11.10 in the 500 free, the second-best time in Stanford history. Ekk, who set the Stanford record in the 1000 free in October, came just over a second away from surpassing Grant Shoults, who set the mark in 2018.
Gu won twice on Friday: first in the 50 free with a 19.13 (a personal best), and he was on the third leg of Stanford’s 400 medley relay win that posted a 3:03.89. Finn Harland opened up the race in the first leg, with Fan, Gu, and Dupont Cabrera following.
Saturday’s final day of competition featured three more individual wins to go with another relay win, as Stanford swept the relays all week long. A highlight came in Stanford’s first win as Omer Wiener scored his first collegiate win in the 200 IM with a time of 1:43.79 (NCAA qualifying mark), edging out Finn Winkler of Utah by 0.14 seconds. That win kick-started things the rest of the way for Stanford, as the Cardinal won all but one race from that point forward.
Dupont Cabrera won next, taking home first in the 100 free with a time of 42.24, and then it was McFadden getting back into the win column with a time of 1:42.77 in he 200 fly. The final victory was the last relay, as Dupont Cabrera, Harrington, Tan, and Gu won the 400 free with a time of 2:48.01.
Despite earning the win in 200 back on Saturday, Josh Zuchowski finished second with a time of 1:40.98, good enough to earn a spot as an NCAA qualifier.
Stanford will not be in action again as a team until January, when it returns to the pool in dual-meet action against UC San Diego on Jan. 16 and USC on Jan. 17.