Courtesy: Stanford Athletics
STANFORD, Calif.- Stanford plays host to North Carolina State at noon PT on Saturday at Avery Aquatic Center in a matchup of teams which finished in the top eight at the 2015 NCAA Championships.
The Cardinal, which took sixth place at the NCAA Championships, has finished in the top 10 at nationals in each of the past 35 seasons.
“It's going to be a different year without having some of the top-end athletes we graduated last season,” said Goldman Family Director of Swimming Ted Knapp. “Through the recruiting process, the development of our team and some changes in our training cycle, one of our real strengths is going to be the emergence of our depth.”
North Carolina State enters the weekend ranked fifth in the CSCAA Division I Coaches poll, two places ahead of the Cardinal.
“Last year North Carolina State made an impressive leap forward, and although they are obviously the new kid on the block they are definitely a top-five team this year,” said Knapp. “We are extremely happy to have this level of competition visit us. For us to come into this weekend as the underdog and race well against a great team is exactly what we are looking for at this stage in the season.”
North Carolina State burst onto the national scene with an eighth-place finish at the NCAA Championships in 2015, its highest team finish in 39 years. The Wolfpack also racked up 26 All-America nods and three individual runner-up finishes at nationals.
Stanford took on California in an unscored triple distance meet on Wednesday in Berkeley, California. Danny Thomson impressed in the distance events, winning the 500-yard freestyle (4:28.41) and 1000-yard freestyle (9:07.21).
Jimmy Yoder (1:45.92) won the 200-yard butterfly, Gray Umbach won the 100-yard individual medley (50.21) and 200-yard individual medley (1:48.46) and Sam Perry (44.51) won the 100-yard freestyle.
Other top swims included Connor Black (1:47.43) in the 200-yard butterfly, Liam Egan (9:19.59) in the 1000-yard freestyle, Curtis Ogren (3:52.61) in the 400-yard individual medley and Perry (1:39.71) in the 200-yard freestyle.
Connor Kuremsky has had a fine start to the season on the diving side of competition, already racking up wins in the 3-meter (365.25) and 1-meter (322.35).
Live results will be available at GoStanford.com.