LOS ANGELES — No. 9 Stanford men’s swimming and diving capped off a weekend in Southern California with a meet against No. 18 USC on Saturday afternoon. With a majority of its swimmers back in their normal events, the Cardinal cruised to a win over the Trojans, to the tune of a 203-96 final.
It wasn’t quite as perfect for Stanford as Friday’s competition against UC San Diego, where Stanford won every event. However, Stanford nearly swept the afternoon and had several 1-2 finishes, and even a few 1-2-3 finishes. The only events that Stanford did not win were both in the backstroke (100m and 200m) and the 100 butterfly.
In both relays, Stanford proved no match for the Trojans. In the 200 medley relay, Ethan Harrington, Zhier Fan, Rafael Gu, and Jonathan Tan beat the top team from USC by nearly a second with a time of 1:24.43. The afternoon closed with the 400 free relay, where Gu, Andres Dupont Cabrera, Henry McFadden, and Tan used a time of 2:50.66 to win by nearly two seconds. All told, Stanford won all four relays it raced this weekend.
The first individual event of the day was dominated by Liam Custer, who cruised to a win in the 1000 free with a time of 8:48.81, the third-best time in school history and the second in the top three to occur this year. Custer was also crisp in the 500 free, where he won yet again with a time of 4:19.35. His wins helped him earn the most individual points towards the team score of all swimmers.
The 200 free was the next event after Custer’s win in the 1000 free, and he was followed by Henry McFadden, who scored a win with a time of 1:33.44. Stanford took the top three spots in the event, with Dupont Cabrera and Jason Zhao taking the top three spots. McFadden would win again in the shorter 100 free, with a time of 42.64, taking over the lead from Dupont Cabrera in the final 50 to secure the win.
In the breaststroke, Stanford saw two different individual winners. Zhier Fan took first in the 100 breast with a time of 52.02, surviving a late push from Daniel Li, who was just 0.1 seconds behind. Li finished atop the Stanford swimmers in the 200 breast with a time of 1:53.52, leading wire-to-wire over Go Nagaoka and Fan.
Gibson Holmes took first in the 200 fly for an individual win with a time of 1:42.89, overcoming teammate Josh Zuchowski, who led the first 50m before settling into second. The final two individual wins for the Cardinal came in the 50 free, where Tan and Gu actually tied for the win with a time of 19.32 (Stanford took the top three spots with Harrington finishing third), and Zhao closed out the day with a win in 200 IM, posting a 1:44.67.
While most of the action was taking place with the swimmers, Stanford’s divers were also in action. Misha Andriyuk took first in both 1-meter and 3-meter diving with scores of 369.00 and 419.93, respectively, the best scores of his career in each category. Gunnar Grubbs took third in 1-meter diving with a 300.98 and scored 355.20 in 3-meter diving to finish fourth. Grant Schneider got up to fifth in 3-meter with a 316.80 and finished sixth in 1-meter with a 263.03.
All told, Stanford recorded 13 NCAA qualifying marks: nine from the swimmers and four from the divers.
Stanford returns home for the final dual meet of the season on Jan. 30 at Avery Aquatics Center against No. 4 California. All the action begins at 1 p.m., with senior day festivities for the Cardinal following after the meet.