Andrei Minakov Leads Stanford Past USC, Set up Cal Showdown

Preston Forst; Photo Courtesy: Stanford Athletics

Andrei Minakov Leads Stanford Past USC, Set up Cal Showdown

Two individual wins and two relay triumphs by Andrei Minakov led No. 11 Stanford to a 182-118 win over No. 8 USC on Saturday. The win leaves the Cardinal at 4-0 in the Pac-12 this season, setting up a showdown with fellow unbeaten California to on Feb. 19 at the Uytengsu Aquatic Center.

Minakov sprinted to the win in the 50 free in 19.58 seconds. He added a win in the 100 butterfly in 46.40, a margin of victory of more than a second.

Results

Minakov swam fly in the 200 medley relay, helping the Cardinal hold of USC by .17 seconds in 1:25.67. Leon McAlister, Ron Polonsky and Mason Gonzalez comprised the rest of that foursome. Minakov also brought home the concluding 400 free relay in 2:55.78, a win of more than a second over the Trojans. He teamed with Preston Forst, Neel Roy and Luke Maurer in that squad.

For all the sprint specialties, it was the distance set that turned the meet in Stanford’s favor. Grant Shoults dominated the 1,000 free in 9:00.21. Forst (a dominant 1:35.44) and Maurer went 1-2 in the 200 free, then Forst outdueled Shoults to take the 500 in 4:20.27.

Pac-12 Swimming News

For all the brilliance of Forst and Minakov, arguably no one might had a more impressive day than Polonsky. The freshman swam the medley relay to victory before stomaching a third place in the 100 breaststroke. But he recovered to win the 200 backstroke in 1:44.99 and prevailed with a time of 1:46.01 in the 200 individual medley. Stanford applied an exclamation point there with a 1-2-3 sweep, Rick Mihm and Alex Liang following.

Liang captured the race of the day, winning the 200 fly in 1:47.32, a race in which the top five finishers were separated by nine tenths. Daniel Roy and Ethan Dang went 1-2 in the 200 breaststroke. Dang had been second in the 100 breast.

USC surged early via its stroke contingent. Evangelos Makrygiannis won the 100 backstroke in 48.28, and finished second in the 200 back. Trent Pellini followed by capturing the 100 breast in 53.08. Nikola Miljenic went from third in the 50 free to winning the 100 free in 43.93, going 1-2 with Max Saunders. Harry Homans was second in the 200 fly and third in the 200 back, while Alexei Sancov was third in the 200 free and second in the 100 fly.

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NC Fan

2 years ago

Is the Stanford-Cal meet really at USC as the article states?