After dueling back and forth for most of the afternoon, the outcome of the Big Meet between No. 2 Stanford and No. 4 Cal came down to the final event. Stanford came into the 400-yard freestyle relay with a nine-point lead over Cal, needing either a win or both second and third place to secure the meet victory.
By the third leg, the contest had split into a race for the win between the two ‘A’ relays and a race for second between the two ‘B’ relays. On the anchor, Nathan Adrian of Cal pulled away from senior Eugene Godsoe of Stanford to win the race. Adrian also won the 50- and 100-yard free.
Stanford’s hopes were still alive in the form of sophomore Geoff Cheah. Cheah, swimming the anchor on the ‘B’ relay, touched the wall with 50 yards to go dead even with Nolan Koon of Cal. Though Cheah was swimming hard he did not know the significance of his race at the time.
“All I knew was that I had to beat the Cal Bear next to me for the team and for the graduating seniors in their last home meet, as I knew the meet was really, really close,” Cheah said.
With 25 yards to go, Cheah flipped off the wall with an arm’s length lead. With the crowd at Avery Aquatic Center on its feet and both teams screaming frantically from the pool deck, Cheah held his slim margin all the way to the final wall to secure the Stanford victory 123.5-119.5. The significance of the moment was not lost on its chief participant.
“Having all of my teammates cheering like that was one of the most exciting things I’ve ever experienced. It reminded me of all the hard work that we all have put in and further brought us together as a team and family” Cheah said.
Cheah’s heroics were set up in part by the dominance of the Stanford distance group. Sophomores Chad La Tourette, Micheal Zoldos and Trevor Scheid contributed to two sweeps in the 500- and 1,000- yard freestyle events. La Tourette won the 1,000 and took second to Zoldos in the 500. In the 1,000 junior Scotty Korotkin took fourth to complete the sweep, and senior David Mosko took third in the 500.
Junior diver Brent Eichenseer won both the one- and three-meter events to contribute 18 important points. In the absence of the injured senior All-American Dwight Dumais, Eichenseer has been called on to take over as Stanford’s top diver.
Godsoe continued his stellar season by effortlessly pulling away from Cal’s Guy Barnea and Mythias Gydensen in the final length of the 200-yard backstroke. Freshman Matthew Swanston took third in the event.
After taking the early lead, the Cardinal fell behind by 11 points after Cal swept the 200-yard individual medley. The Cardinal responded immediately when Mosko and sophomore Bobby Bollier came from behind in the last 25 yards to take first and second in the 200-yard butterfly. Both Mosko and Bollier were less than three-quarters of a second ahead of Tom Shields of Cal.
In similar fashion, junior John Criste and sophomore Curtis Lovelace charged in the final 25 yards of the 200-yard butterfly to take second and third and preserve Stanford’s lead heading into the 400-yard relay.
Such performances were important to the Cardinal victory. With the exception of the 200-yard individual medley, the Cardinal managed to avoid Cal sweeps in every event and prevented the Bears from gaining large advantages from their strongest events.
Seniors David Dunford and Alex Coville took second and third in the 50-yard free, respectively. Dunford returned to take third in the 100-yard free and was followed by freshman Aaron Wayne in fourth.
Sophomore Rob Andrews took second in the 200-yard free and was followed by Mosko and Bollier in third and fourth.
The Cardinal will now set its sights on the Pac-10 Championships. The diving championships will be held in Federal Way, Wash. starting this Thursday. The swimming events will be held in Long Beach, Calif. beginning Mar. 3. Stanford has won 28 consecutive Pac-10 championships.