This article has been corrected and republished.
Stanford Def. Cal (Men)
- February 19, 2022
- Avery Aquatic Center, Palo Alto, California
- SCY dual meet
- Meet results
- Team score
- Stanford 153-Cal 141
Stanford hosted Cal for their senior day on Saturday. The Cardinal won against the Golden Bears 153-141, completing their season undefeated for the first time since 2017-2018.
Cal’s loss to Stanford on Saturday was the team’s first dual meet loss since Stanford beat them by 2 points on February 17, 2018, after 20 consecutive dual meet wins.
According to social media posts, the teams wore tech suits.
The competition began with Cal winning the 200 medley relay by a narrow margin against Stanford (1:23.62) compared to 1:23.98 seconds, respectively. Cal’s winning relay featured Daniel Carr (21.10), Liam Bell (23.65), Dare Rose (20.40), and Bjorn Seeliger (18.47). Stanford’s lineup included Leon MacAlister (21.48), Ron Polonsky (23.37), Andrei Minakov (19.82), and Mason Gonzalez (19.31). Both teams were under the pool record (1:24.91), which was set by Cal in 2020.
Swimming on Stanford’s B-relay, Ethan Dang posted a 22.64 breaststroke split in the 200 medley relay. This split was faster than Evgenii Somov of Louisville’s split (22.85) on the ACC winning 200 medley relay. Dang’s split is also faster than Dillon Harris ‘s split (23.16) on Florida’s winning 200 medley relay from the SEC Championships. Alabama’s Derek Maas split a 22.63 in the breaststroke leg of the relay at the SEC Championships, which was the fastest split in the field.
The teams traded winners throughout the meet, which kept the competition extremely close. The only swimming event that had a 1-2 team finish was in the 200 IM when Cal’s Hugo Gonzalez (1:42.16) and Destin Lasco (1:42.19) narrowly edged Stanford’s Polonsky (1:42.32). 1st through 5th place finishers were all under Josh Prenot’s pool record (1:45.38), which was set in 2016.
There were many 2-3 finishes from the same team, and a 2-3-4 finish for Stanford in the 100 breaststroke with Daniel Roy (52.75), Ethan Dang (53.02), and Jon Cook (53.41). Bell of Cal won the event (52.31), but Cal’s breaststroke ace Reece Whitley did not compete in this event. He only swam the 200 breaststroke on Saturday, which he won (1.49.68) by 2.61 seconds to Stanford’s Roy (1:52.57).
Stanford picked up all 32 diving points with Connor Casey, Jack Ryan, and Hunter Hollenback taking 1-2-3 on the 1-meter and 3-meter, respectively.
The meet also featured many more pool records.
- Grant Shoults, 1,000 freestyle pool record, 8:46.79
- Previous record 8:50.93, Shaun Phillips, Stanford, 2006
- Trenton Julian, 200 freestyle pool record, 1:33.13
- Previous record 1:34.31, Luke Maurer, Stanford, 2021
- Liam Bell, 100 breaststroke pool record, 52.31
- Previous record 52.46, Reece Whitley, Cal, 2020
- Jonathan Affeld, 200 butterfly pool record, 1:41.42
- Previous record 1:42.86, Alex Liang, Stanford, 2020
- Bjorn Seeliger, 50 freestyle pool record, 19.08
- Previous record 19.25, Ryan Hoffer, Cal, 2020
- Bjorn Seeliger, 100 freestyle pool record, 41.78
- Previous record 42.77, Duje Draganja, Cal, 2004
- Reece Whitley, 200 breaststroke pool record, 1:49.96
- Previous record 1:51.64, Daniel Roy, Stanford, 2020
- Preston Forst, 500 freestyle pool record, 4:14.40
- Previous record Grant Shoults 4:15.74, Stanford, 2021
- Jonathan Affeld, 100 butterfly pool record, 45.34
- Previous record Ethan Hu 45.47, Stanford, 2020
- Stanford, 400 freestyle relay pool record (MacAlister, Maurer, Affeld, and Minakov) 2:49.59
- Previous record 2:53.25, California, 2020
There were many swims that moved athletes into the top-25 in national rankings this season.
- Grant Shoults, 1,000 freestyle (8:46.79), 3rd (not a race at championship meets)
- Trenton Julian, 200 freestyle (1:33.13), 21st
- Liam Bell, 100 breaststroke (52.31), 18th
- Jonathan Affeld, 200 butterfly (1:41.52), 16th
- Gabriel Jett, 200 butterfly (1:41.50), 17th
- Leon MacAlister, 200 backstroke (1:40.28), 12th
- Reece Whitley, 200 breaststroke (1:49.96), 2nd
- Preston Forst, 500 freestyle (4:14.10), 18th
- Sean Grieshop, 500 freestyle (4:14.84), 23rd
- Jonathan Affeld, 100 butterfly (45.34), 14th
- Hugo Gonzalez, 200 IM (1:42.16), 9th
- Ron Polonsky, 200 IM (1:42.32), 10th
Next up, both teams will compete in the Pac-12 championships from March 2-5 in Federal Way, Washington.
Getting A relay cuts at Dual is great!
Isn’t Hugo Gonzalez a red shirt senior this year? Or did he decide not to red-shirt? He competed in this dual and won the 2IM event. I guess he is competing this year.
Is there a recap on the women’s meet?
The women raced the weekend prior.
https://staging.swimswam.com/diving-and-relays-lead-stanford-over-cal-women/
Thank you!
“The first time that Stanford and Cal squared off in a dual meet was February 20, 1999”
It seems really hard to believe that the first time Stanford went up against Cal in a dual meet was 1999. They have been been in the Pac 12 for many decades before that, and they are close enough to drive over.
Is that really true?
The other thing I’ll mention is that Stanford vs. Cal has always been incredibly fast. It is usually really late in the season when teams are starting to rest.
Stanford vs. Cal dual meet in the February 20, 1987 issue of the Stanford Daily:
https://archives.stanforddaily.com/1987/02/20?page=9§ion=MODSMD_ARTICLE29
I took a dive through the archive and it actually began in 1921. “The Cardinal vs the Blue and Gold Babes”. https://archives.stanforddaily.com/1918/03/15?page=1§ion=MODSMD_ARTICLE9
Whitley’s 200 br was the swim of the meet. Possibly the fastest 200 br in a dual meet ever. It was incredible to watch!
It was excellent. That was his only event I think. He didn’t swim medley relay or 100 breast.
He went 1:48 in season last year.
Yeeeep. Fell for that trap, once, he’s one of the guys who needs a “redemption” year.
True, he went 1:48.5 at the Cal-stanford dual meet in Nov 2020. But that was a weird situation because that meet served as a midseason invite due to the pandemic. Not sure it’s a fair comparison, but technically I stand corrected.
so we have the 800 free at the Games now, but still no 1000 free at NCAA’s
Do you think that NCAAs becomes a better meet if they add another distance event?
I don’t.
Remember that by adding an event, they’re not going to add more qualifiers. So that’s going to either 1) cut down on qualifiers per event, or 2) if your argument is that “it’s going to be all of the overlapping qualifiers with the mile,” then why do we need both races?
Looking at it from a commercial perspective, and we have to do that if we expect NCAA swimming to continue to exist as it does, I don’t think adding the 1000 benefits the meet. But I know others disagree with me.
800 fits into 8 day Olympic schedule much better than a 1000 would fit into 3 1/2 day NCAA schedule.
I’ve always thought the D2 format is the best because you get 4 FULL days rather than a half day, 4 individual entries to see some stars perform in more events, and the 1000 to let the distance swimmers shine more than 1-2 events.
But take all of that with a massive grain of salt because I was a D2 swimmer and a distance swimmer with the 1000 being my best event. From a viewership perspective the 1000 on day one is going to make the folks that care about swimming start looking at Twitter and do NOTHING to get new viewers (which should be a consideration of any change to the NCAA format imo)
I will never understand why pac12’s is so late
They are in the same place relative to NCAA they have always been. And Men follow Women by a week, just as is the case with NCAA. Many of the others have gone earlier. Pac-12, to date anyway, has simply remained consistent with their practices.
West coast schools tend to start school a week or two later.
Wow what a meet. Looks like tons of close finishes that could have swung the score either way. I wish this was on Pac12 network but I don’t see it anywhere
What happened with Jack Levant? He last appeared on Stanford roster in 2020-21 season as a junior. At one point he appeared to have a good shot at making 4 x 200 LCM national team relay. I hope he will overcome whatever he is facing.
He stopped swimming early last year. I heard he’s had some personal stuff going on, but mostly found it hard to balance the demands of a student-athlete. Hope nothing but the best for him since he seems like a great guy.