STANFORD, Calif. - The Cardinal continued its season on Friday with the Triple Distance Meet in the Avery Aquatic Center against No. 1 California as the team heads towards the end of the fall season.
A non-team-scoring meet, the Triple Distance Meet splits swimmers into event groups (butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, sprint freestyle, distance free and individual medley) and requires swims at three different distances within the event: 50, 100 and 200 yards in the fly, breast, back and sprint free; 200, 500, 1,000 in the distance free; 100, 200 and 400 in the IM.
"I'm really proud of the way we raced today," said The Goldman Family Director of Men's Swimming Dan Schemmel. "We put in a lot of good work this fall, battled a lot of sickness and injuries, but despite all that, this is probably the best performance we've had at this meet top-to-bottom, and I feel like that's a very good sign of things to come."
Stanford took home three of the Triple Distance titles, as Jonathan Affeld earned first place in the fly, Ethan Dang captured the breast title, and Preston Forst took the top spot in the distance free.
Affeld's title was the product of dominant swims in the 50 (21.87) and 200 (1:47.07) fly, both individual event wins that powered him to first place in the Triple Distance. His collective time over the three events of 2:57.55 beat out California's Dare Rose by two tenths of a second, while Ethan Hu took third place in the Triple Distance fly with a 2:59.12.
In the breast, Ethan Dang swam a decisive 200 (1:57.94) to take the top spot in the Triple Distance after clocking an overall time of 3:17.49. Zhier Fan was right on Dang's heels, taking second overall with a 3:18.54 and claiming event wins in both the 50 (25.08) and the 100 (54.18).
Preston Forst flexed his muscle in the distance events, sweeping the 200 (1:38.91), 500 (4:29.26), and 1000 (9:17.23) events and taking the Triple Distance crown by nearly a 16 second margin with a time of 15:25.40. Gabe Machado also grabbed a podium spot in the distance free, taking third overall with a Triple Distance time of 15:45.60.
In the short distance free, all five of Stanford's swimmers finished between second and sixth overall, as Luke Maurer led the way while nabbing silver in the Triple Distance with a time of 2:40.83, just three tenths of second behind California's Robin Hanson. Maurer took second in each of the 50 (20.07), 100 (43.75), and the 200 (1:37.01).
Ron Polonsky also took second in the IM Triple Distance, clocking a 6:31.99 overall. He also took second in each of the 100 (50.17), the 200 (1:46.40), and the 400 (3:55.42).
Stanford returns to action in the NC State/GAC Invite later this month to wrap up the fall season.