After a three-week break from competition, both the women’s and men’s swimming teams dove into the new year with dominating victories over Pacific, winning by respective scores of 162-92 and 159-92.
On the women’s side, the Cardinal swimmers set the tone on the very first event of the meet, with a 1-2-3 finish in the 200 medley relay as the Stanford “C’ relay team managed to beat the Pacific “A” relay team. Stanford would go on to finish at least first or second in 13 of the 14 total events.
Individually, sophomores Andie Taylor and Maya DiRado and freshman Annemarie Thayer led the way, each coming up with two individual event wins. Taylor won the 200 butterfly and the 500 free, events in which the top four finishers were all Cardinal swimmers. DiRado notched a first-place finish in the 1,000 freestyle, winning by 20 seconds, and then followed up that performance with a victory in the 200 breaststroke. Thayer earned her two wins by sweeping the backstroke events, touching out her teammates in both the 100 and 200 backstroke.
Like the women’s team, the men’s swimmers took control right at the start, with a 1-2-3-4 sweep in the 200 medley relay. From that point on, Stanford never gave Pacific a chance to bounce back as the top three finishers in all 14 events were Cardinal swimmers.
The freshman duo of David Nolan and John Edwards added to their already impressive freshman campaigns with respective triple and double-win efforts. Nolan won the 50 freestyle, 200 backstroke and 100 butterfly, while Edwards took the 100 backstroke and 200 individual medley. Seniors Curtis Lovelace and Chad La Tourette each chipped in a win in the 100 breaststroke and 500 freestyle, respectively.
Most of the competition that the Cardinal swimmers faced was against their own teammates. In the women’s 200 freestyle, junior Natalie Durant held off senior Samantha Woodward by just one-hundredth of a second, the slimmest of margins. In the men’s 100 freestyle, junior Aaron Wayne touched out senior Geoff Cheah by less than three-tenths for the win, and in the men’s 200 butterfly, Bobby Bollier surged in the last 50 yards to overtake junior Mack Montgomery by about six-tenths of a second.
The women’s team improved its dual meet record to 4-1, while the men’s team is still undefeated at 5-0. Next up for the Cardinal swimmers is a dual meet against Arizona State on Jan. 20. The divers will compete at their own Cardinal Diving Invite this Friday through Sunday.