BERKELEY, Calif. — No. 8 Stanford men’s swimming enjoyed strong success at the annual Triple Distance Meet, hosted this year by No. 4 California at the Spieker Aquatics Center in Berkeley. Six different Cardinal won a combined eight events in the team’s final Bay Area competition of the fall season.
The day began with a win in the first event for the Card, with Henry McFadden taking home first in the 200 fly with a time of 1:43.10. It is his third individual win of the season and first since the season-opening PAC Invite in Stockton.
Andres Dupont Cabrera earned his first individual win of the season in the 200 free with a time of 1:34.57, a new season-best for the senior. Dupont Cabrera was a lone double winner on the day for Stanford, also taking home first in the 100 free with a time of 42.78, edging out Nans Mazellier of California by 0.01 seconds.
Shortly after Dupont Cabrera’s first win, another veteran earned a win, with Liam Custer taking first in the 400 IM with a new personal-best time of 3:46.06, winning by nearly four seconds over Casper Puggaard of California. Custer also took second in the 200 IM, part of a sweep of the top two spots for Stanford in the event.
The winner of the 200 IM? Gibson Holmes, who scored the win with a time of 1:45.70, besting Custer by just over two seconds. The top two times this season for the Cardinal in the 200 IM have both come from Holmes.
Finn Harland earned multiple wins in the backstroke, taking first in both the 50 and 100 yard races. The sophomore posted times of 21.92 in the 50 and 46.97 in the 100, topping Keaton Jones in both distances for the victories. His time in the 100 back was easily a season best for the Cardinal and over a half-second better than his own season best.
Another Cardinal sweep took place with the top three positions in the 50 free. Jonathan Tan led the way for Stanford with the win, posting a time of 19.45, and he was followed by Ethan Harrington (19.52) and Rafael Gu (19.64). When these two swam the 50 free at the double dual two weeks ago, Harrington and Tan were flipped on the leaderboard for the Cardinal, with Tan putting up a season best.
Despite not scoring a win on the day, Ethan Ekk had a strong showing in the 200 back with a time of 1:40.55. His time just missed the top 10 all-time in Stanford history (11th-best), and is a new personal-best for the freshman, shaving over three seconds off of his previous time at the double dual two weeks ago.
Stanford heads east to the state of Texas for the next few weeks with two separate events. Next week is the annual Texas Diving Invite, taking place on Nov. 13-15. One week later, the swimmers will compete in the SMU Invite from Nov. 19-22, rounding out the fall portion of the season for the Cardinal.