MINNEAPOLIS – Stanford earned first-team All-America honors in all five swimming events on Day 2 of the NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships at the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center.
"Tonight was our best relay effort in several years and we're looking forward to another tremendous opportunity tomorrow," said Goldman Family Director of Men's Swimming Ted Knapp.
The Cardinal (6-0, 5-0 Pac-12) started the finals session with a time drop in the 200-yard freestyle relay. The quartet of Sam Perry, Andrew Liang, Alberto Mestre and Brad Zdroik (1:16.23) improved its preliminary time to pick up first-team All-America honors.
Grant Shoults followed it up with a program-record time in the 500-yard freestyle, finishing fourth for the second straight season. Shoults (4:10.02) broke his own program record from 2017 with a personal best in the A-final with teammate Liam Egan (4:14.49) placing seventh for All-America honors. Egan, a three-time All-American in the 500 free, swam a personal-best 4:12.02 in prelims.
Abrahm DeVine kept the momentum going with a fourth-place finish in the 200-yard individual medley. DeVine (1:40.35) improved his 1:40.78 from the morning session for his first career first-team All-America honor in the event. DeVine finished 11th in the 200 IM in each of his first two trips to NCAA's – his time in 2018 is good for the 10th-fastest 200 IM of all time.
"You have to recognize Abe and Grant, the latter of whom broke his own school record, and we also had some really significant swims in the morning," added Knapp. "Liam had such a gutsy swim to make the 500 free final, and Ryan's leadoff in prelims was fantastic."
Stanford wrapped up an impressive showing on Day 2 with a sixth-place finish in the 400-yard medley relay. After qualifying seventh, Stanford's team of Ryan Dudzinski, Matt Anderson, Liang and Perry (3:04.16) finished sixth for Stanford's second first-team All-America relay of the night and third in as many tries. Dudzinski's 45.01 leadoff leg in prelims was a personal best and the third-fastest 100-yard backstroke in program history.
Stanford sits in sixth place with 116 points behind Indiana (169), North Carolina State (165), Texas (159), Florida (154) and California (152.5).
The Cardinal is back in action Friday for Day 3 of the NCAA Championships. Tomorrow's events include the 400-yard individual medley, 100-yard butterfly, 200-yard freestyle, 100-yard breaststroke, 100-yard backstroke, 3-meter and 200-yard medley relay. Live streaming and results will be available at GoStanford.com.
Cardinal Notes
- True Sweetser (4:16.38) finished 21st in 500 free prelims with Johannes Calloni (4:18.14) in 36th.
- Brennan Pastorek (1:43.29) swam a personal best in 200 IM prelims, just missing out on a second swim in 21st place. Curtis Ogren (1:44.35) was 30th and Alex Liang (1:45.83) took 38th.
- Stanford had three swimmers in the 50-yard freestyle – Andrew Liang (19.32) in 22nd place, Sam Perry (19.34) in 25th and Brad Zdroik (19.62) in 38th.
- In 1-meter prelims, Tarek Abdelghany (317.45) placed 22nd and Ted Miclau (290.05) took 33rd.