Seven different Trojans won races, including senior Cristian Quintero in two events, and Troy won both relays as the No. 22 USC men’s swimming and diving team upset No. 12 Stanford, 157-142, Saturday (Feb. 7) in Palo Alto.
The Trojans improved to 5-2 overall, 5-1 in the Pac-12, after defeating the Cardinal on the road for the second time in row, the previous meet in 2013. Prior to the past two road meets, USC hadn’t won on at Stanford since 1997.
USC clinched the win in the meet’s final race, the 400y free relay, as sophomores Santo Condorelli and Dylan Carter, freshman Ralf Tribuntsov and Quintero finished in 2:55.50, Troy’s third-best time in the race this year, for a win by 0.36. Quintero powered home in a 42.71, overcoming Stanford’s Thomas Stephens over the final 50 yards.
Troy opened the meet with a victory in the 400y medley relay as senior Luca Spinazzola, junior Morten Klarskov, Carter and Condorelli won in 3:13.05, Troy’s third fastest time this year.
Freshman Pawel Furtek followed with a season-best swim in the 1000y free, taking the race in 9:10.50, 2.58 ahead of Stanford’s Liam Egan while Trojan junior Ted Singley was third (9:15.85), also in a season-best swim.
Quintero won the 200y free for the second day in a row, touching first in 1:37.54, 0.49 seconds ahead of Cardinal Tom Kremer.
The Trojans went 2-3 in the 100y back as Tribuntsov finished in 47.63, 0.09 out of first, while Spinazzola touched in 48.74. Klarskov followed with a win in the 100y breast in 54.76, more than a second ahead of Stanford’s Daniel Le’s 55.99.
Senior Cary Wright powered to second in the 200y fly in 1:47.09, .10 behind Stanford’s Andrew Liang. Carter then won the 50y free in 20.19 with Quintero third in 20.27.
Stanford swept the 3-meter springboard, but juniors Collin Pollard and Deon Reid went 2-3 on 1-meter.
Condorelli won the 100y free in 43.51, 0.64 ahead of Stanford senior David Nolan while Carter touched third (44.42) and Wright came back to take first in the 200y back in 1:45.99, 1.45 better than Cardinal Drew Cosgarea.
Sophomore Steven Stumph posted a season-best and NCAA ‘B’ cut of 1:58.83 to win the 200y breast with Klarskov taking second in 2:00.94 and senior Andrew Malone finished fourth (2:03.34).
Quintero doubled up with a win in the 500y free, finishing in 4:26.73 in a wire-to-wire win while sophomore Reed Malone (4:28.63) and Furtek (4:30.68) finished 3-4. Sophomore Michael Domagala (48.59) and Tribuntsov (48.63) then went 2-3 in the 100y fly.
Wright took third (1:51.04) and Klarskov fifth (1:51.73) in the 200y IM to add key additional points.
USC wraps up the dual meet season at Utah with two days of swimming on Feb. 20-21.
No. 12 Stanford and No. 22 USC battled to the end of Saturday’s Pac-12 Conference men’s swimming and diving dual meet at Avery Aquatic Center. The visiting Trojans prevailed on Stanford’s Senior Day, 157-142.
The setback move Stanford’s dual meet record to 5-1 on the season. Stanford’s regular season ends Feb. 21 with a dual meet against rival Cal in Berkeley. USC improved to 5-2 overall.
USC struck first by going 3:13.06 to win the 400-yard medley relay. Stanford was close behind at 3:13.47 and its B-unit took third in 3:14.56.
Liam Egan’s 9:13.08 gave him a second-place finish in the 1,000-yard freestyle. He was second in the 500-yard freestyle with a 4:27.50.
In the 200-yard freestyle, Stanford went 2-3-4 with strong racing from Tom Kremer (1:38.03), Drew Cosgarea (1:38.82) and Sean Duggan (1:39.21).
David Nolan bested the field with a 47.54 in the 100-yard backstroke.
“It was great going out with these guys,” said Nolan. “Definitely the best group we’ve had in the last four years. We raced really hard, and got some great racing experience.”
USC’s Morten Klarskov went 54.76 to win the 100-yard breaststroke, less than a second off the pool record. Daniel Le (55.99), Max Williamson (56.19) and Christian Brown (56.28) were next in order.
Andre Liang (1:46.99) won the 200-yard butterfly and Sam Perry (20.22) was second in the 50-yard freestyle. Liang (47.87) added another win in the 100-yard butterfly.
Bradley Christensen (402.30) and Kristian Ipsen (398.55) went 1-2 off the 3-meter board. Ipsen (416.55) won the 1-meter edition in his home finale.
“Senior Day was really cool,” said Ipsen. “I was happy with the 1-meter, and felt like I dove solid. In the 3-meter, I tried some new dives to try to bump up my degree of difficulty heading into the Pac-12 (Championships), (NCAA) Zone (Championships) and NCAA (Championships.”
Nolan (44.15) touched second in the 100-yard freestyle. One race later, Cosgarea (1:47.44) turned in a silver-worthy swim in the 200-yard backstroke. Patrick Conaton (1:48.33) and Gray Umbach (1:49.17) were close behind for third and fourth, respectively.
Williamson (2:01.21) was Stanford’s highest finisher in the 200-yard breaststroke and placed third. Williamson closed the individual events with a 1:48.13 to win the 200-yard individual medley. Umbach (1:49.80) was second.
USC squeezed ahead of Stanford in the 400-yard freestyle relay, finishing in 2:55.50 compared to the Cardinal’s 2:55.86.
