The University of Hawaii men traveled across the Pacific for a pair of meet to kick off their 2014-2015 season. After falling to the Cal Golden Bears on Friday, the Rainbow Warriors suffered another loss on Saturday as Stanford’s David Nolan lead a Cardinal charge to a 179 – 106 win.
Stanford’s A, B and C teams kicked off the 400 Medley Relay with a 1-2-3 finish ahead of Hawaii’s A team. The Cardinal A team finished in the third-fastest time in the country so far, with the B relay team pulling in the fifth-fastest.
Rainbow Warrior Sophomore and MPSF 500 Free record setter Victor Goicoechea clinched Hawaii’s only win (before exhibition swims) in the 1650 Free (14:32.83). It was almost ten seconds ahead of Cardinal Junior Danny Thomson (15:42.18) and the fastest time in the country so far.
The Cardinal trio of Junior Sean Duggan, Senior Drew Cosgarea and Junior Jeff Garnier completed a 1-2-3 sweep of the 200 Free, each with a sub-1:40 swim. Hawaii Senior and 2013-2014 MPSF Swimmer of the Year Eduardo Vaz Guimaraes finished fourth, just shy of breaking the 1:40 mark (1:40.21).
Freshman Cardinal Andrew Liang kicked off his collegiate career with a win in the 100 Back (48.95) ahead of Freshman teammate Patrick Conaton (49.71). Junior Ryan Arata finished a surprising fourth (50.58), but the Cardinal backstroke field seems to be deepening with the addition of Liang and Conaton.
Stanford Junior Christian Brown (55.91) out-touched teammate Daniel Le (55.94) by three one-hundredths of a second in the 100 Breast for another 1-2 punch in points. Le went on to take first in the 200 Breast (2:04.02) ahead of 100 Breast winner Brown later in the meet.
The sweep in the 100 Breast as followed by 1-2-3-4 Cardinal coverage in the 200 Fly , lead by Junior Grey Umbach (1:47.63). Umbach got his third season off to a good start with this race, as the Cardinal showed off their depth in the Butterfly.
After contributing the backstroke leg in the winning 400 Medley Relay, Cardinal Senior David Nolan brought the consistency he is known for to the back-to-back sprint events. Nolan claimed both the 50 Free (20.49) and 100 Free (44.68), both times leading a pack of Stanford Cardinal.
Cosgarea won his first individual event of the meet in the 200 Back (1:47.87), with Freshmen Conaton (1:48.91) and Brock Turner (1:48.99) coming in close behind him and proving their backstroke prowess.
The 100 Fly was the start of exhibition swims for the Cardinal. Hawaii’s Vaz Guimaraes took first with a 50.01. Although an exhibition swim, Freshman Liang clocked a blazing 47.48 in the event: The second-fastest time in the country so far.
The Stanford underclassmen shined in the 400 IM, as Sophomore Max Williamson (3:49.07), Freshman Curtis Ogren (3:52.88) and Sophomore Justin Buck (3:59.75) all had sub-4:00 exhibition swims. Hawaii Junior Kacy Johnson took home the first place points in 4:05.81.
Hawaii’s A team took first in the 200 Free Relay (1:24.67), as Stanford’s relay teams were exhibition, with the Cardinal D team touching the fastest in 1:22.33.
With the Cardinal underclassmen giving solid performances in a number of events, it will be exciting to watch them continue to contribute to the Cardinal men’s program as they build into the championship season.
Slow sprint freestyle times. Alabama, Utah, and NC State aren’t having this problem early season.
Whoa, I think the team comparisons are a bit heavy-handed. It may well turn out that Stanford has a problem with sprint freestyle again this year, who knows? They haven’t had a strong sprint free group for a few years now, so what I see isn’t so surprising right now – but you gotta start somewhere. And, comparing them with some of the teams you list, I’d say that many schools have the exact same problem at this early part of the season.
Taking the teams you’ve listed:
NC State is a sprint-focused program which has been building around sprints for 3 or 4 years. They have great depth in those events and it shows in the results. Bilis,… Read more »