ATLANTA — The race for an Atlantic Conference Championship is coming down to the wire between two Pacific Coast teams. Stanford and California are in a tight battle atop the leaderboard, with Stanford posting some fast times on Friday, but the Cardinal could not add to its list of conference champions.
After shocking the ACC and winning the 400 IM on Thursday, Josh Zuchowski went back to work and finished with the top time in the 200 fly prelims, posting a 1:40.63, once again beating Logan Robinson of Florida State for the top spot in close fashion. It was the second-fastest time in Stanford history, and about 1.5 seconds better than his previous career best. He was followed closely by Gibson Holmes, who ripped off a fourth-place time of 1:41.14, easily in NCAA qualifying range.
With two cracks at a conference championship, both Zuchowski and Holmes came up just short in what proved to be a blazing-fast race. Robinson won with a 1:38.78, while Zuchowski just missed the podium at 1:40.69 (fourth), and Holmes finished with a 1:40.81 (sixth).
Stanford did not have a swimmer reach the “A” finals in the 100 back, but Finn Harland was fastest for the Cardinal with a 45.85, a season-best, which is the ninth-fastest time in program history. With the Cardinal needing to score as many points as possible to keep pace near the top of the standings, Harland finished 14th with a 45.90, adding on 0.05 seconds to his time and scoring 13 points.
The Cardinal nearly earned two entries into the “A” finals of the 100 breast. Daniel Li got there with ease, posting a 51.54, a new career best, which was the third-fastest time in the prelims. Zhier Fan tied for eighth at 52.01 with Ethan Maloney of Virginia Tech, which created a swim-off for a spot in the “A” finals. Fan dropped that swim-off, putting him in the consolation final along with teammates Abram Mueller (52.21) and Go Nagaoka (52.44).
The finals were just as tightly contested as expected, with several swimmers clustered around similar times. Li settled for a fourth-place finish (51.63), but Stanford did get a finals win thanks to Fan, who won the consolation final with a 51.74, scoring 20 big points for the Cardinal.
In the 400 medley relay, Stanford could have surpassed California for first place in the overall standings heading into the final day. However, the Golden Bears won the relay with a 3:00.74, while Stanford finished in sixth with a time of 3:02.58.
200 Fly – 4. Josh Zuchowski (1:40.69 finals, 1:40.63 prelims), 6. Gibson Holmes (1:40.81 finals, 1:41.14 prelims), 13. Henry McFadden (1:42.52 finals, 1:42.20 prelims)
100 Back – 14. Finn Harland (45.90 finals, 45.85 prelims), 20. Hayden Kwan (46.22 finals, 46.37 prelims), 30. Omer Wiener (47.12 prelims)
100 Breast – 1. Henry McFadden (1:31.05 finals, 1:32.32 prelims), 10. Jason Zhao (1:32.70 finals, 1:33.08 prelims), 12. Andres Dupont Cabrera (1:33.37 finals, 1:33.42 prelims), 67. Henry Morrissey (1:39.22 prelims)
400 Medley Relay – 1. California, 3:00.74; 5. Stanford (Finn Harland, Daniel Li, Rafael Gu, Henry McFadden), 3:02.58
Through six days of competition, Stanford (799) trails California (827) by 28 points for the ACC title.
The final day of the ACC Championships features the 200 back, 100 free, 200 breast, 1650 free, and 400 free relay, with the Cardinal getting in the pool at 6:49 a.m. PT.