Torri Huske, Yamato Okadome Shine at Stanford-Cal Triple Distance Meet
Traditional rivals Cal and Stanford met Friday for their annual triple-distance meet, where swimmers contest three distances of the same stroke plus individual medley to determine the overall winner. The Stanford women came out on top 192.5-131.5, with Olympic gold medalist Torri Huske leading the way with an IM sweep, while Cal’s men won 180-158 behind a sterling breaststroke performance from Yamato Okadome.
Huske put up times of 52.64 in the 100 IM, 1:55.13 in the 200 IM and 4:04.21 in the 400 IM, the latter marking a best time by almost seven seconds in an event she hardly ever swims. Huske’s versatility is such that this time would have been good enough to reach the top-eight at last year’s NCAA Championships. The sweep did not come easy, though, thanks to inspired performances from Cal’s Mia West, the runnerup in all three races with times of 52.67, 1:55.30 and 4:04.91, respectively.
Lucy Bell, last year’s NCAA champion in the 200 breaststroke, put up a time of 2:04.76 in her signature event, less than a half-second slower than her winning time of 2:04.28 from the national meet. No other swimmer went under 2:04 at the NCAA meet, and the fastest returning swimmer aside from Bell was more than a full second behind. Bell also won the 100 breast (58.27) while placing second in the 50 breast to teammate Lucy Thomas (26.91).
Stanford’s Levenia Sim took first in the 50 backstroke (24.61) and 100 backstroke (52.67) while Caroline Bricker, last year’s NCAA champion in the 400 IM and long course U.S. champion in the 200-meter fly, opted to race backstroke on this occasion, pulling out a win in the 200 at 1:54.50. Stanford also had Gigi Johnson winning the 200 free in 1:44.35.
For Cal, Mary-Ambre Moluh was the winner of the 50 freestyle (22.07) as well as the 100 free (47.98). Annie Jia topped the sprint butterfly events, the 50 (23.46) and 100 (51.23) while Lilou Ressencourt blasted a winning time of 1:53.24 in the 200
On the men’s side, Okadome was the standout for the Golden Bears with marks of 23.46 in the 50 breast, 50.89 in the 100 and 1:52.20 in the 200. New teammate Nathan Wiffen was the dominant force in the distance events, topping the 500 free in 4:20.15 while going 8:53.62 to finish atop the 1000. Samuel Quarles was the winner of the 50 fly (21.12) and 100 fly (46.58), and Cal also got wins from Keaton Jones in the 200 back (1:40.30) and Casper Puggaard in the 100 IM (49.26).
The Cardinal’s Andres Dupont Cabrera swept the 100 free (42.78) and 200 free (1:34.57) while Finn Harland was first in the 50 back (21.92) and 100 back (46.97). Jonathan Tan came home first in the 50 free while Henry McFadden made a cameo in the butterfly races, winning the 200 in 1:43.10. In the IM events, Gibson Holmes topped the 200 (1:45.70) while Liam Custer was first in the 400 (3:46.06).
A pair of mixed relays both went to the Golden Bears. Cal’s Nans Mazellier, Luca Baggaglini, Moluh and West clocked 1:22.23 to win the 200 free relay, with Moluh splitting 21.39 and West 21.54 to finish off the relay. A 200 medley relay team of Evan Petty, Okadome, Jia and Sydney Griscavage picked up the top spot in 1:29.24.
