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NewsvineGoing into the NCAA championships ranked third, the Stanford men’s swim team finished in third place after three days of competition from March 27 to March 29 at the King County Aquatic Center in Washington.
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Stanford lived up to its expectations with this year’s young team, qualifying a total of 15 swimmers and divers for the NCAA championships, nine of them just freshman.
The young team proved itself at NCCAs, winning a hard-fought battle for third place with a final tally of 344 points.
Competition for third was very tight, as Cal, who finished with 332.5, and Auburn, winners of the last five titles, finished fifth with 316. Arizona won the title easily with 500.5 while Texas took second at 406.
When asked what the keys to NCAA success would be, junior Jason Dunford explained: “We are going to be big underdogs at this year’s NCAAs and in order to stand a chance of winning we will not be able to afford slip up in any events. Guys expected to make top eight must do so. The relays will also be vitally important, and thus perfecting our changeovers in the next few weeks will be crucial.”
For individual events, the Card certainly stepped up in preliminaries to make the finals. The top 16 times in the morning session were guaranteed a swim in the evening as well as scoring at least a point for their team. The top eight in the morning were guaranteed to score at least 11 points, with 20 points going to the individual event winner.
Relays double the points of individual swims as the top 16 teams in the morning are guaranteed to score at least two points and the national title winner of the relays is given 40 points.
The relays are an integral part of any team’s success as Stanford finaled in all five relays.
“Overall as a team, we definitely stepped up to the challenge,” said junior captain Paul Kornfeld. “We came away with a hard-fought third place finish ahead of Cal and the defending champions, Auburn. We did pretty well each morning doing what we needed to do in prelims to get into finals.
“That is how you really move up in the team standings, by getting lots of people into the final heat.”
The Stanford 200 freestyle relay team of Jason Dunford, freshman Austin Staab, sophomore David Dunford and sophomore Eugene Godsoe took fourth in the finals with a time of 1:17.47. Stanford came in third for the 400 medley relay, fourth in the 200 medley relay, fifth in the 800 freestyle relay and fourth in the 400 freestyle relay.
Senior Danny Beal stepped up for the seniors as he swam a school record 200 freestyle at 1:33.26, finishing in sixth. He also swam the second fastest 200 fly in school history, finishing third in 1:42.79. Lastly, Beal finaled in the 500 free, finishing eighth.
Kornfeld won national titles in the 100 breaststroke and 200 breaststroke in 52.03 and 1:53.11. His 100 time was the fastest in school history, while the 200 was second fastest in school history. Kornfeld is currently vying for a spot on the Canadian Olympic team in the 100 meter breast.
“I was definitely confident I could win the breaststrokes in finals. That had been my goal all season,” said Kornfeld. “The key for me was to swim my own race and not worry about what everyone else was doing. I wasn’t first at the 50 in the 100 or at the 100 in the 200, but I was in control of my swim the whole time and it worked out.”
Additionally, Stanford’s breaststroke crew earned big points as freshman John Criste finished fifth, junior Chris Ash eighth, and junior captain Nate Cass 11th. Godsoe, Stanford’s lone backstroker, finished sixth in the 100 back and seventh in 200 back. Cass also finished seventh in the 200 individual medley (IM) while freshman David Mosko finished 13th in the 1650 freestyle and 14th in the 500 freestyle while also swimming the 200 fly and 200 freestyle.
The NCAA championships ends the season of competition as Stanford looks back on the season with a list of accomplishments including its 27th straight Pac-10 title and its 27th consecutive year of finishing fourth or better at NCAAs. Two NCAA individual titles round out the list for the Cardinal.
Contact Kenan Jiang at kenanj@stanford.edu.