Feb. 27, 2012

Live Stats | Release

Stanford Swimming, winners of the last 30-straight conference championships will embark on post-season play on Wednesday when it travels to a new location, East Los Angeles, for the four-day Pac-12 Championship.  The long-time home to the championships, Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach had to undergo emergency repairs and was unavailable. This year’s club not only features 10 seniors on its roster, but also one of America’s top distance threats in senior Chad La Tourette, flyer and fellow senior Bobby Bollier and freshman David Nolan, who is ranked in the national top-20 in five events.

The Streak
Cardinal coach Skip Kenney has now won 30-straight Pac-10 titles, continuing the longest streak in conference history. Since Kenney took over the program, the Cardinal have finished in the top three at the national meet 26 times and never lower than fourth since 1981. It has also won seven national titles. Stanford’s last NCAA title came in 1998. Last year the Cardinal were third.

Endowed Coaching Position
Stanford Athletics announced that the head coaching position for the men’s swim team is now endowed, courtesy of a gift from Marcia and John Goldman. The Goldmans endowed the gift last spring. John is a 1975 graduate of Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.  Additionally, John is a long-time Athletics Department volunteer and is a past chairman of the Stanford Athletics Board.

Kenney at the Helm
Three-time Olympic coach, six-time NCAA Coach of the Year and 21-time Pac-10 Coach of the Year, Goldman Family Director of Swimming Skip Kenney is in his 33rd season at the helm of the Stanford program. Seven of the eight NCAA titles have come under Kenney.

Diving In
Dr. Rick Schavone is in his 34th year as the team’s diving coach and is a three-time NCAA Diving Coach of the Year, who has been a part of a combined 16 national men’s and women’s team titles. Since 1982, he has coached at least one top-16 finish at NCAAs. In five seasons he has coached an NCAA champion and in another four he has coached the NCAA runner-up.

Last Week’s Diving
The points for diving have already been tabulated and Stanford led the field with 147 points, folllowed by Arizona (94) and Utah (76). Points will be awarded nightly over the final three nights, based on the events. In the platform, Stanford had four top-10 finishers led by fifth place Noah Garcia. In the 1-meter, Taylor Sishc (3rd) andConnors Kuremsky (4th) were in the top-five. Sishc was a runner-up in the 3-meter on the first night with Kuremsky (4th) and Garcia (6th) finishing in the top-six. Freshman Kristian Ipsen did not compete due to the fact he was in London with the U.S. National team.

In the Rankings
According to rankings in late January (prior to Stanford’s wins over USC and Cal), the Cardinal are ranked No. 3 nationally behind No. 1 Arizona and ahead of USC (No. 5), and Cal (No. 6). In the dual meet with Arizona, Stanford was edged by the Wildcats 153-145 with each team winning eight events.

Returning Champions
Stanford has four returning conference champions this spring with Chad La Tourette winning all three 1650 free titles he has competed in and Bobby Bollier, set to close out his Stanford career this post-season, with three titles as well. Bollier won the 200 fly in 2009 and 2010 and also picked up the title in the 400 IM in 2010. Following Bollier, the 400 IM has been won by the Cardinal in each of the last two years with Matt Thompson winning in 2011. Senior David Mosko is also a former champion, winning the 500 free in 2010. La Tourette is also a defending NCAA champion in the 1650, winning in 2010 and finishing second in 2009 and 2011.

Impressive Freshman Season
David Nolan has already started to etch his name in the records books, ranking seventh all-time in the 200 IM (1:44.69), as well as 13th all-time in the 100 free (43.34) and 11th in the 200 back (1:42.05). This along with his five national top-20 times, could make for a special championship season for the Pennslyvania native.

Ipsen in London
Freshman Kristian Ipsen, who won all 12 collegiate diving events during the regular season spent last week in London, where he was sixth in the 3-meter synchro and 24th in the 3-meter. Trials for the Olympics will occur in June, as Ipsen and his partner Troy Dumais are the U.S.’s top 3-meter synchro team. He missed out on this year’s Pac-12 Championships, but is scheduled to compete at Zones (March 8-10) and NCAA’s (March 22-24).

Last Go Around for La Tourette
During his four-year career Chad La Tourette has won an NCAA title in the 1650 free (2010), was an NCAA runner-up twice (2009 and 2011) in the same event and won three-straight Pac-10 titles in the 1650 free. He also went 25-1 in four seasons in dual competition in the 1000, 1650 and 500 free. He closed out his career winning 23-straight long distance dual events, with the lone loss to his own teammates his freshman year.

Charting the Field
Freestyle Sprints-- With Aaron Wayne ranking just outside the national top-20 with a time of 19.78, he is likely in the A Finals of the 50 free with just a handful of sprinters in front of him led by USC’s Vladimir Morozov’ time of 19.35 for No. 3 nationally... the 100 free has Nolan (43.34) and Wayne (43.35) with near identical times at No. 15 and No. 16 nationally amongst three other Pac-12 swimmers in the top-20 including Morozov who ranks No. 1 (42.32)... Stanford ranks No. 19 overall in the 200 free relay (1:19.26).

Mid and Long Distance Free-- Stanford has four swimmers ranked in the Stanford record books at 1:35 and change in the 200 free, which would put them in the national top-20, though none have times that fast this year. The Pac-12 has five swimmers in the top-20... La Tourette has the 19th-fastest 500 free time, four seconds slower than Arizona’s Matt Barber (4:16.55). Senior David Mosko was the 2010 Pac-10 champion... La Tourette (No. 3) and Michael Zoldos (No. 19) are half the Pac-12’s best 1650 freestylers with La Tourette holding an eight-second advantage in the 1000 free and 12 second advantage in the 1650 free of anyone in the Pac-12 this year in the longest distances. La Tourette is also the three-time defending champion in the event. In the 400 free relay, Stanford ranks No. 8 and in the 800 free relay Stanford ranks No. 11, within four-five seconds of USC and Arizona.

Breaststroke-- Curtis Lovelace in his last conference meet ranks No. 10 in the 200 breast (1:55.67) behind a quartet of Arizona swimmers... Lovelace ranks No. 23 nationally in the 100 breast as six Pac-12 swimmers are in the top-20. Arizona has the nation’s top time in both the 100 (51.76) with Kevin Cordes and the 200 (1:53.43) in Carl Michelson.
Backstroke-- For the previous three sesaons the Cardinal have relied upon Matt Thompson and Matthew Swanston in the backstroke, this year Nolan is in the mix with his junior teammates... the trio rank in the top-12 in the 200 back with Nolan posting a time of 1:42.05 and Swanston at 1:42.06, within four seconds of national leader and Arizona senior Cory Chitwood (1:38.85).... the 100 back has Swanston and Nolan in a tie for 19th nationally at 47.50. The 100 back is a crowded field with 10 Pac-12 swimmers in the top-20.

Butterfly-- Bollier in his final post-season go around ranks No. 3 nationally in the 200 fly (1:43.47), a second behind Florida sophomore Marcin Cieslak (1:42.43) and Cal’s Tom Shields (1:43.09). Bollier has history having won the event twice in his three years with Shields edging Bollier by a second and a half last year... the 100 fly has Nolan ranking No. 11 (47.04) and Bollier at No. 20 (47.30) in a field that has Shields leading all swimmers at 45.67.
 
Individual Medley-- Matt Thompson ranks in the national top-20 in both disciplines, ranking No. 7 nationally in the 400 IM and No. 17 in the 200 IM. Thompson is the defending champion in the longer event, but will have to contend with two Arizona swimmers that are ahead of him in on the national leader boards led by Austen Thompson (3:39.37) and Sam Rowan (3:45.79). Thompson has a time of 3:46.58.... in the shorter distance, Nolan ranks No. 7 at 1:44.69, trailing national leader and Arizona swimmer Cory Chitwood (1:41.92) by three seconds.... in the medley relays, Stanford is ninth in the 400 medley relay and 13th in the 200 medley relay.