Swimmers of the Week
Men’s Swimmer of the Week – Austin Staab (Stanford) – Staab didn’t take long to make a huge impact on Stanford. Without his return, and his two big wins, they don’t beat #2 Arizona.
Women’s Swimmer of the Week – Liv Jensen (Cal) – Jensen had two big wins against Cal, and also split a 22.04 to anchor the 200 medley. She will carry the bulk of the load for Cal this Championship season.
Arizona Declawed by Stanford
In one of the first big shakeout meets of the annual Pac-10 spring gauntlet, the #1 Stanford Cardinal women took down #7 Arizona 178-114, while the men’s battle was much tighter as #2 Arizona was nipped by #3 Stanford 155-143.
After Stanford won the 400 medley (3:38.74), the first individual race, the women’s 1000 free, was a great battle between Arizona’s Alyssa Anderson and Stanford’s Kelsey Ditto. The two were in a dead-heat through 200 yards, when Ditto made the first move. She stretched out to nearly a 2-second lead through 800 yards, when Anderson lashed back. By 900, Anderson had brought the race back to within a yard. At 950, Ditto had moved further ahead again, as Anderson’ late charge seemed to have run out of steam.
Or did it? The Arizona Wildcat caught fire on the last 50 yards and out-split Ditto 26.3-27.6 to win the race in 9:48.42. Ditto finished just back in 9:48.90. Whenever an event of this distance can get two swimmers locked in an actual race against each other, against the clock, it results in great times. Both swimmers notched season-best times, and are now ranked 6th and 8th in the nation.
This was the last time when the meet was very close, as Stanford proceeded to crank out 9-straight event wins. The most impressive performance in that stretch was the 50 free, where the Stanford sprint trio of Sam Woodward (22.70), Kate Dwelley (22.78), and Betsey Webb (22.88) managed to sweep the top-3 spots: including pushing Arizona stud freshman Margo Geer into third. Geer currently has the fourth-best time in the Nation. Stanford’s experience, in fact, played huge in this meet as they kept the December Pac-10 Swimmer of the Month Geer winless for the first time in her college career.
On the men’s site, the meet was much tighter, and was in question all the way until the final touch.
The Wildcats got off to a strong start in the 400 medley relay. All four swimmers had awesome splits: Cory Chitwood 48.57 in the back, Kelley Wyman 53.97 in the breaststroke, AJ Tipton 47.29 in the fly, and Nimrod Shapira Bar-Or 43.83 in the free. Without having seen much from Cal yet, though they surely have more to give, this Arizona squad might be the team to beat in the 400 medley.
Austin Staab, fresh off of a full-season off from collegiate swimming, swam a great butterfly leg of 46.46 for the Stanford top A relay, that could muster no better than a third place finish.
Staab had another great swim in the 200 free, with a time of 1:37.76 that is his best so far for this short season, and also ranks 7th in the nation. It appears as though Staab, despite his ominous absence for competition for the better part of the last 9 months, was still doing some serious quality training. Staab is one of several swimmers who will have to make a tough decision this season about trying to double in the 100 fly and 200 free in back-to-back events at NCAA’s. In the individual 100, though he slowed down significantly of the terror pace he had in the relay, he still managed to win in a 47.93. At the time, this was the best time in the nation this semester.
Thanks to an Arizona 1-2 finish in the 400 IM, the meet was still in doubt in the last relay. The Wildcats would’ve needed a 1-2 finish in the 200 free relay, which seemed unlikely given that Stanford took the top two spots in the individual 50. Austin Staab and Aaron Wayne had great middle splits of 19.6 and 19.5, respectively, to carry the Cardinal to a victory in the event and the meet in 1:19.48. Arizona was second in 1:19.98. These are the two best times in the country since holiday training.
Cal Gives Arizona Double Dose
On Sunday, the Arizona Wildcats faced their second-straight top five opponent on Sunday when they squared off against the Cal Golden Bears at home. The second-straight day of elite competition clearly took a toll on them as the women fell to #4 Cal 165.5-133.5, and the Wildcat gentlemen fell to their counterparts, also ranked 4th, 174.5-123.5.
The evidence of this fatigue was pretty clear. Alyssa Anderson, for example, who swam a 9:48 on Saturday, added 17 seconds to go a 10:05.7 on Sunday.
Cal, however, looked pretty fresh a day after knocking off Arizona State. Cindy Tran won the 100 back in 54.05. Caitlin Leverenz continued her evolution as a breaststroker with a double in times of 1:01.85 and 2:12.46, respectively. Despite the focus on breaststroke, however, Leverenz hasn’t lost her roots as one of the country’s best IM’ers, collegiately or not. She won the 200 yard discipline in 2:00.21. Defending 50 free National Champ Liv Jensen was also very solid in the sprint freestyles, with wins in 22.54 and 49.49 in the 100.
On the men’s side, Cal really flexed their might in the 200 medley. We speculated prior to the season that, at least in theory, Cal could probably go 1-2 at NCAA’s in the medley relays. They did just that in this particular meet, with an A-relay that won in 1:28.24 and their B-relay just back in 1:28.38. As an indicator of what Cal is thinking going towards NCAA’s, they left their all-world sprinter Nathan Adrian on the B medley. Last year at NCAA’s, this was the relay that he sat out, and they won anyways, so they’ll likely do so again with all four of their quartet returning. In the B, however, Adrian split an 18.89 on the anchor leg. This really shows what kind of depth and potential they have now that they finally have their entire lineup focused on the NCAA season.
Adrian also had fantastic times in his individuals, with a 43.83 in the individual 100, a 19.62 individual 50, and a 42.61 flat-start to lead off the 400 free relay. That’s the first 42 of 2011.
Tom Shields, in answering the challenge put down in this same pool the day before by Austin Staab, came back with a 47.85 to win the 100 fly. This bettered the time put down by his Stanford rival by a tenth.
But the day wasn’t a total loss for Arizona. Among their better swims were bouncebacks from two freshman. Margo Geer got her first win of the weekend in the 200 free, and improved her time to a 49.49 in the 100. Mitchell Friedemann won the 100 back in 48.78 in a great finish ahead of the three medal-favorites for NCAA’s: Mathias Gydesen (48.88), teammate Cory Chitwood (48.89), and Guy Barnea (49.00). Friedemann also had a great 50 free split in the medley of 19.69.
Other Pac-10 News
On Friday, Arizona State fell to Cal 182-117 (men) and 152-135 (women). Freshman Tristin Baxter had the best performance for the Sun Devil-ettes, with a 9:51.53 in the 1000…
Arizona State lost to Stanford the following day: 174-120 on the women’s side, and 168-122 on the men’s side. Despite the lopsided score, the Arizona State women were dominant in at least one aspect: the breaststrokes. They went 1-2 in the 100, led by Rebecca Ejdervik (1:02.19), and 1-2-3 in the 200, led by Jordyn Green (2:16.37)…
The UCSB men split on Saturday. They beat Northern Arizona 192-98, and fell to UNLV 161-137. UNLV’s Cody Roberts (49.74) and UCSB’s Kevin Ferguson (49.81) had a great race in the 100 back…
Great meet for Mitch Friedemann, representing ‘scony pride!
No, this is pretty much assuming that they are equal for NCAA’s. Obviously, the Pac-10 pick has more to do with Stanford’s ever-present taper (no. 30 this year?). Even if the duel meet goes Staab, I think Shields will uncork something special at NCAA’s.
So… who wins between Staab and Shields in the duel meet, Pac-10s, and NCAA’s. Classic rivalry. Cal-Stanford. Same events (sorta, since they both are good at the 200 free too). Same strategy (underwaters). All close but my picks are…
Duel meet – Shields (extremely tight though)
Pac-10s – Staab
NCAA’s – Shields
It’s going to be a great 6 weeks of racing between the two. Pac-10’s and NCAA’s will come down to other event choices in part.
I think all else equal, Staab wins at NCAA’s. I feel like Shields is the pick based on, in part, Stanford has focused more of their taper on Pac-10’s. But Staab didn’t have the mid-season taper meet like his teammates did, so maybe he’ll fight through to NCAA’s.