Ryan Murphy’s Backstroke Blasts Highlight Cal-Stanford Triple-Distance Meet

Photo by Griffin Scott

STANFORD – Though no score was kept, it was clear that the California Golden Bears were the dominant team in today’s Triple Distance Meet against Bay Area rival Stanford. The meet put all swimmers into specialty groups and provided them each with three racing distances. There were 50s, 100s and 150s of butterfly, backstroke and breaststroke. Sprint freestylers took on the 50, 100 and 200 distance while the distance freestylers tackled races 500 and 1000 yards long. Those who lean toward the individual medleys were given a 100 IM, 200 IM and 400 IM to race today.

Cal won 14 of the 18 individual events and also won the 200 medley relay to cap off the meet. Ryan Murphy swept all three backstroke distances while teammate Chuck Katis won all three breaststroke races. Will Hamilton was able to win all three IM races for Cal as well.

Though Murphy’s 22.10 in the 50 back and 47.49 in the 100 back were outstanding, it was his 1:43.98 that stole the show. That’s the fastest time done in the collegiate ranks this year. Murphy just missed his season best of 47.17 in the 100 back, and his 50 time would be the envy of most 200 medley relay leadoff swimmers.

As for Katis, he had challenges from Stanford sophomore Daniel Le throughout the meet, but had enough to outlast through the breaststroke series with times of 25.19 in the 50, 55.24 in the 100 and 2:00.96 in the 200.

Hamilton was pushed by Stanford as well in the IM events, but held off Gray Umbach and Curtis Ogren through the rounds. Hamilton, the 2012 NCAA champion in the 200 fly, took the 100 IM with a 50.19, just six tenths ahead of Umbach. Hamilton returned with a 1:48.30 to win by four tenths in the 200 IM over Umbach and overtook Ogren in the freestyle leg of the 400 IM, winning with a 3:52.62 to Ogren’s 3:53.15.

Stanford freshman Andrew Liang looked like he was going to win all three butterfly distances, starting off with an impressive 21.60 in the 50 fly and a 47.50 in the 100 fly. But Long Gutierrez, who hadn’t finished higher than fourth in the previous two butterfly races, took the 200 fly out hard (49.76 at 100 yards) and held on to post a 1:45.95 to beat Liang by more than a second.

In the sprint freestyle races, Cal’s Trent Williams took victories in two of the three events. Cal’s Seth Stubblefield fired the first shot, winning the 50 free with a 20.52 over the 20.53 by teammate Tyler Messerschmidt. Williams won the 100 free with a 44.68, just .03 ahead of Stanford’s Thomas Stevens, and returned to take the 200 free with a 1:37.37, just three tenths over Stephens.

Stanford’s Danny Thomson and Cal’s Janardan Burns put on a show in the distance freestyle races. Thomson won the 500 free with a 4:31.70 to Burns’ 4:32.62. In the 1000 free, Burns bided his time, letting Thomson set the pace for 600 yards before taking the lead and extending it with a winning time of 9:17.69. Thomson settled for second with a 9:20.35.

Full results available on Meet Mobile.

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