The no. 13 USC Trojans will play host to the no. 4 California Golden Bears and no. 2 Stanford Cardinal. on Saturday in the weekend’s premier dual meet. All three teams come into the meet with only 1 dual meet loss.
California enters the meet with a 3-1 dual meet record, and are led by returning NCAA Champions Nathan Adrian and Damir Dugonjic.
Stanford comes in at 4-1, having suffered a defeat to Arizona after losing National Champion Austin Staab for at least the season, if not for good, for undisclosed personal reasons. Their new leader in the pool is senior Eugene Godsoe who currently has the nation’s top time in the 100 back, and Chad La Tourette, who is one of the best distance swimmers in the country.
Host club USC is led by two European olympians in Frenchman Clement Lefert and Hungarian Zotan Povaszy. Lefert is ranked third in the nation in both the 200 and 500 freestyles, as well as fourth in the 200 fly.
There will not be many marquee matchups on Saturday, as most of the top swimmers specialize in different events, but one exception will be the 500 freestyle, where Lefert, La Tourette, Stanford’s David Mosko, and Povaszy come in with four out of the nation’s top 9 times.
The diving competition was held last week in order to work aroud the Winter Diving Nationals and World Cup Trials, and those results will be included in this meet’s results. The diving portion featured Harrison Jones, USC’s only returning All-American.