Stanford swimming has a long tradition of excellence in a variety of events. That tradition was alive and well this weekend, as Stanford was led by a trio of senior All-Americans to wins over Cal State Bakersfield and No. 13 USC. Saturday’s 174-124 victory over the Trojans was the more important victory for the No. 2 Cardinal.
Seniors David Mosko, David Dunford and Eugene Godsoe each won two individual events. Godsoe swept the backstroke events and also came in second in the 100-yard butterfly. Dunford took the freestyle sprints (50 and 100 yards) and led off the winning 200-yard freestyle relay while Mosko won the 200-yard butterfly and 500-yard freestyle.
Godsoe has been dominant all season, but Mosko and Dunford arguably had breakout performances. They appear poised to step up for the Cardinal as the team tries to rebound from a dual-meet loss to Arizona two weeks ago and the loss of NCAA 100-yard butterfly champion Austin Staab. A junior, Staab is on a leave of absence from the team.
“Personally, it was nice to get a couple of victories against USC,” Dunford said. “The times weren’t quite as fast as I had hoped, but at this point it’s still all about racing and so I’m happy that I managed to get my hand on the wall first.”
Dunford’s assessment echoed the pre-race comments of head coach Skip Kenney, who said that this year is all about “relearning how to swim.”
The seniors were not the only group of Cardinal men to make strong contributions this weekend. The sophomore class, headed by Curtis Lovelace and Chad La Tourette, also had some standout performances. Lovelace won the 200-yard breaststroke and La Tourette lead a first-second-third sweep of the 1650-yard freestyle.
Following la Tourrette were fellow sophomores Justin Scheid and Michael Zoldos. The Cardinal men also swept the 200-yard backstroke with a quartet of Godsoe, freshmen Matthew Thompson and Matthew Swanston and sophomore Geoff Cheah. Thompson also added a win in the 200-yard IM.
The meet was close until the ninth event, when four consecutive wins by Godsoe, Dunford, Mosko and Lovelace gave the Cardinal a commanding lead that it would not relinquish.
“The meet was still close before the 100 free and we knew that as they were announcing the score before each event, so I knew how important it was for us to win the 100 free,” Dunford said. “After that they didn’t have much chance of stopping us.”
The Bakersfield meet on Friday saw a number of athletes swimming in their off-events. Long distance specialist Scheid, for example, swam the 50-yard freestyle. The Cardinal still bested its weaker opponent 162.5-121.5, winning 11 individual events and two relays in the process.
Stanford’s winners included junior John Criste in the 200-yard breaststroke, sophomore Bobby Bollier in the 200-yard freestyle, and Swanston in the 50-yard freestyle.
A number of the times posted this weekend were fast enough to earn NCAA ‘B’ cuts, meaning they have a possibility of reaching the NCAA championships. Three swimmers, La Tourette in the 1650-yard free, Mosko in the 200-yard butterfly and Godsoe in the 100-yard backstroke, posted times that would traditionally qualify them for NCAAs, but it is unlikely that they will have to rely on those marks, as they have either swum faster this year or will likely do so at Pac-10s when they are more rested.
The Cardinal will end its regular season on February 20th at home against Cal.