WALNUT, Calif. — Both Stanford swimming and diving programs team up again on Friday night at Mt. Sac Aquatics Center for their second appearance in the College Swimming League. CSL Match 5 featured similar high-energy swimming from what Stanford fans saw at Avery on Oct. 2, but the results were different for the Cardinal, finishing fourth in a loaded field.Â
After a pair of individual wins and a relay win on the men’s side, neither the men nor the women were able to score any victories on Friday night. This hurt Stanford’s chances at moving up the leaderboard, never able to climb out of fourth place despite a strong ending to the evening in the Super Skins, where Stanford’s 200 medley relay team finished second. The group of Ethan Ekk, Daniel Li, Ethan Harrington, and Nathan Foucu posted a 1:25.75 in its first swim, eventually reaching the finals of the Super Skins before falling to NC State.
One of the better results of the night for the Cardinal came from Gibson Holmes, who came back late in his 200 fly swim to finish second overall with a time of 1:43.33. His splits started to level off over the 100 yards, moving from the middle of the pack to second by the end. Raekwon Noel of Indiana took first, with a win of nearly 1.5 seconds over Holmes. The senior was in the pool once more on Friday, taking sixth in the 100 fly (46.85).
Daniel Li added another second-place finish for the Cardinal, taking second in the 100 breast, as he did on The Farm two weeks ago. His time of 51.96 was less than two-tenths of a second back of California’s Yamoto Okadome, who won the event for the second time this year. Li finished fourth in the 200 breast with a mark of 1:53.57.
Elsewhere on Friday, Gunnar Grubbs was the top diver for Stanford at a diving-only meet against California and NC State at Berkeley. He had a commanding win in the 1-meter finals, with a 357.80 overall, nearly a 40-point win over Yutong Wang of California. He also competed with the highest degree of difficulty (17.70). Grubbs placed second in the 3-meter finals with a score of 315.30, with Wang taking first.
In Santa Cruz at the Slug Shootout, the best race for the Cardinal came in the 200 free, where Stanford took the top two spots. Ray Liu won the event with a 1:38.09, his first collegiate win in a freestyle event, while Abram Mueller came in second with a time of 1:38.13, just narrowly beaten by his teammate. Mueller was the anchor of Stanford’s 200 free relay team that took first with a time of 1:20.66, also featuring Andy Kravchenko, Enzo Desviat Ruiz, and Tyler Phillips.
Kravchenko also picked up a win in the 50 free (19.72), Mueller won in the 100 breast (53.21), and Connor Jones won a pair of events – the 100 back (49.79) and 100 fly (48.04).
Stanford will now wait to see if it clinches a spot in the CSL Wild Card, which takes place in Indianapolis on Thursday, Nov. 5. Seven teams in the CSL qualify for the postseason – four make the Wild Card and three earn automatic spots in the CSL Championship.
Final Team Scores – CSL Match 5
- NC State – 544.83
- Indiana – 469.83
- California – 394.33
- Stanford - 311