Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick<\/p>\n
PALO ALTO – A day after losing to the reigning NCAA champion California Golden Bears, the Southern California men\u2019s swimming and diving team rallied to beat Stanford today by just 15 points. Some of the Trojans swam faster today than they did against California, and they needed to in order to win many of the races.<\/p>\n
Southern California took the meet victory, 157-142. The key for the Trojans was not only winning eight of the 12 individual swimming events, but taking both relays. But the close final score does not highlight the fact that Southern California took a massive lead early, making it difficult for Stanford to regroup. After the third event, the 200 freestyle, USC held a 37-22 lead. After the first break, Stanford had bridged the gap 79-74, thanks to a 1-2 in the 3-meter diving by Brad Christiensen (402.30) and Kristian Ipsen (398.55).<\/p>\n
But Southern California put down the hammer by winning the next three events. Going into the 400 free relay, USC held a 146-136 lead. Stanford needed to win the relay and place second or third in order to win the meet. Southern California kept that scenario from happening by winning the event with a 2:55.50 to Stanford\u2019s 2:55.86. Stanford\u2019s B team was third with a 3:00.25.<\/p>\n
The first event of the meet, the 400 medley relay, was just as close. David Nolan helped Stanford\u2019s cause with a 47.38 on the backstroke leg to give the Cardinal a nine tenths lead. But USC retook the lead by a tenth thanks to a 54.58 from Morten Klarskov, and held it with a strong 47.32 butterfly leg from Dylan Carter. Stanford\u2019s Thomas Stephens outsplit USC\u2019s Santo Condorelli 42.87 to 42.96, but it wasn\u2019t enough as the Trojans took the medley relay with a 3:13.06 to Stanford\u2019s 3:13.47.<\/p>\n
Cristian Quintero, the reigning NCAA champion in the 500 free and last year\u2019s runner-up in the 200 free, won both of those events today. He started with a 1:37.54 in the 200 free, a little bit slower than the 1:36.99 he swam yesterday to win against California, but enough to outlast the 1:38.03 from Stanford\u2019s Tom Kremer. In the 500 free, Quintero got a bit of scare from Stanford freshman Liam Egan in the final 200 yards, but Quintero was able to hold on and win with a solid 4:26.73 ahead of Egan\u2019s 4:27.50.<\/p>\n
Freshman Andrew Liang was Stanford\u2019s MVP today as he won both butterfly events. He posted a 1:46.99 in the 200 fly, holding off USC\u2019s Cary Wright by just one tenth of a second. Liang had an easier race in the 100 fly, beating USC\u2019s Michael Domagala by seven tenths of a second, 47.87 to 48.59.<\/p>\n
Also swimming well for Stanford was Nolan, who backed up his strong relay leadoff with a 47.54 to win a four-man 100 backstroke field. Max Williamson was Stanford\u2019s other swimming event winner, taking the 200 IM with a 1:48.13, with teammate Gray Umbach placing second with a 1:49.80 to try to give Stanford a chance to win the meet. Kristian Ipsen picked up a win today as well, taking the 1-meter diving competition with 416.55 points.<\/p>\n
Pawel Furtek, who joined the Trojan squad in January after moving from Poland, won the 1000 freestyle with a 9:10.50. Klarskov won the 100 breast with a 54.76, about seven tenths faster than the time he posted yesterday in the dual meet against California. Southern California was denied a 1-2 finish in the 50 freestyle, as Stanford\u2019s Sam Perry placed second with a 20.22 behind the 20.10 from Carter and ahead of Quintero\u2019s 20.27.<\/p>\n
After taking out the first half of the 100 free in 20.90, Condorelli held on to win the event with a 43.91. That\u2019s just a few hundredths faster than he swam yesterday on USC\u2019s relay leadoff. Nolan outsplit Condorelli on the final 50 yards by a couple of tenths but settled for second with a 44.15.<\/p>\n
Cary Wright threw down a 26.59 final 50 yards to pull away from Stanford\u2019s Drew Cosgarea and win the 200 back with a 1:45.99. Steven Stumph was the only swimmer under two minutes today in the 200 breast, winning with a 1:58.83.<\/p>\n