Minakov, Polonsky, Fan Return for Stanford in Victory Over Pacific

Stanford vs. Pacific

• Jan. 12, 2024
• Avery Aquatic Center
  • Stanford, California
• SCY (25 yards)
• Results
• Team scores: No. 8 Stanford 181, Pacific 35

Stanford’s trio of Andrei Minakov, Ron Polonsky, and Zhier Fan made their season debuts for the Cardinal in their 181-35 victory over the University of Pacific on Friday.

Last October, Stanford head coach Dan Schemmel said that Minakov, Polonsky, and Fan were redshirting the fall semester with the “potential to compete winter quarter.” The trio’s return represents a massive boost for the Cardinal as Minakov and Polonsky combined for 34.5 of their 43.5 individual swimming points at last year’s NCAA Championships.

Minakov clocked the top times in the 150-yard butterfly (1:12.13) and 300 freestyle (2:30.33) while also anchoring Stanford’s 400 free relay ‘B’ team with a 43.11 split. The 21-year-old Russian Olympian was 46.58 at the 100 fly mark, within a few seconds of his lifetime best in the event that he won an NCAA title in two years ago (43.71) and placed 4th in last year (44.27).

Polonsky began his first dual meet of the season with a 49.04 backstroke leadoff on the Cardinal’s 400 medley relay ‘B’ team. His highlight of the day came in the 100 IM, where he posted a personal-best 49.58 en route to a two-second win. Polonsky’s previous-best 100 IM time was 50.17 from November of 2022. The 22-year-old Israeli Olympian also competed in the 300 free (2:52.72) right before the 100 IM, but he switched to all four medley strokes while the rest of the field swam strictly freestyle.

Fan began his season debut with a 53.24 breaststroke split on Stanford’s triumphant 400 medley relay (3:13.15) before earning a 1st-place finish individually in the 50 breast (24.86). He added a runner-up finish in the 150 back (1:17.44) behind fellow Cardinal sophomore Hayden Kwan (1:16.26). Fan is eyeing his first trip to NCAAs this season after placing 5th in the 100 breast (51.97) at Pac-12s as a freshman.

Most of the individual events contested on Friday were not NCAA events with the exception of the 50 free and 1650 free. Stanford freshman Jonathan Tan dominated the 50 free with a winning time of 20.05, almost a second off his season-best 19.20 that ranks 13th in the NCAA. The Singaporean national champion has only lost the 50 free once at a dual meet this season, back in November to Cal’s Bjorn Seeliger (19.62).

In the 1650 free, Cardinal sophomore Liam Custer placed 1st in 15:01.98 while classmate Henry Morrissey hit the NCAA ‘B’ cut with a runner-up finish in 15:22.85. Custer was just a couple seconds off his season-best 14:59.62 that ranks 18th in the NCAA this season.

Stanford is back in action next Friday hosting the top-ranked men’s team in the country, Arizona State, beginning at 2 p.m.