After Cardinal divers did their part for the Pac-12 total last weekend, No. 5 Stanford men’s swimming (4-1, 3-1 Pac-12) prepare to begin their contribution towards the Cardinal’s Pac-12 title defense in this weekend’s championship tournament in Washington.
The four-day tournament commences on Wednesday evening with the 200- and 800-meter relay finals. After the beginning evening, the tournament follows an 11 a.m. preliminary then 6 p.m. final pattern for the next three days, finishing on Saturday evening with the 1,650 free (final heat), 200 back final, 100 free final, 200 breast final, 200 fly final and 400 free relay final.
Last season’s title victory came from the efforts of current junior swimmers Liam Egan and Sam Perry — the former winning the 1,650-meter, and the latter taking the 50- and 100-yard freestyle. When pitted against even stronger conference opponents this year, Stanford will need the speed of Egan and Perry, in addition to the talents number of teammates like freshman True Sweetser, freshman Grant Shoults and junior Andrew Liang — all of whom performed well against Bay Area-rival UC Berkeley in the last regular season meet.
Stanford enters into this weekend with a significant point cushion following last weekend’s diving successes. Senior diver Bradley Christensen took the one-meter Pac-12 title to start out the conference championships last Wednesday — his second consecutive one-meter championship.
Next, Stanford earned both first and second on the platform in a heavily competitive event that boiled down to the final dive. Cardinal junior Tarek Abdelghany eventually edged out fellow junior Ted Miclau by less than one point total (399.45-398.50) to claim the top spot on the platform.
Despite feeling confident about its diving score, Stanford will need a series of good performances from its swimmers in order to reclaim the championship in a heavily competitive Pac-12. The Cardinal are one of five ranked teams competing in the championships this weekend. Again, they will face up against cross-town rivals No. 1 Cal Golden Bears (5-0, 4-0), who defeated the Cardinal in a competitive duo meet to conclude the Cardinal’s regular season.
Contact Lorenzo Rosas at enzor9 ‘at’ stanford.edu.