Grant Shoults Drops Fastest 500 Free Since July Surgery – 4:15.74

PACIFIC V. STANFORD – MEN

  • February 6, 2021
  • Stanford, CA
  • Short course yards (SCY)
  • Results
  • Scores
    • Stanford 171, Pacific 66
  • Notable absences
    • Stanford – Johannes Calloni (has not raced this season), Preston Forst, Jack Levant (has not raced this season), Jordan Greenberg, Alberto Mestre (has not raced this season), Aaron Sequeira (has not raced this season), Rick Mihm, Brennan Pastorek (has not raced this season)

The Stanford men raced their first (and last) official dual meet of the season, taking down the visiting University of Pacific men on Saturday. As noted above, a sizable chunk of their top swimmers did not race on Saturday.

Seniors Grant Shoults, True Sweetser and Alex Liang were big winners on senior day, with Shoults dropping a 4:15.74 to win the 500 free by almost 20 seconds.

Shoults had left shoulder surgery in July 2020, his second shoulder surgery after having a procedure on his right shoulder in January 2019. He was back to racing in October 2020, and this weekend was another step forward for the distance specialist. Read more about his shoulder saga and recovery process here.

Shoults went 9:00 in the 1000 free in October 2020, post-surgery, and then in January dropped down to a lifetime best 8:44. His 4:15 today is better than the 4:20 and 4:18 he did at the two Stanford-Cal matchups in November 2020, and it’s only three seconds off of the 4:12.45 he went at the 2020 Pac-12 Championships, where he won the conference title.

He now ranks 16th in the country this season with that swim.

Sweetser won the 1000 free, going 9:18.07, while Liang picked up wins in the 200 fly (1:42.86) and 200 IM (1:47.04). This was technically Sweetser’s first official race with Stanford since the 2019 NCAA Championships, where he finished seventh in the 1650 free (14:39.07), as he took the 2019-20 season off for the Olympic year. Sweetser raced at both November unoffical Stanford-Cal meets, but this was his first 1000 of the season.

Liang, meanwhile, jumps to #12 nationally in the 200 fly, and his time was only a tenth off of his lifetime best of 1:42.74 from the 2019 Pac-12 Championships.

Stanford’s freshmen were also impressive on Saturday. First, their winning 200 medley relay was all freshmen, made up of Jonathan Affeld (22.06), Ethan Dang (24.30), Ethan Hu (20.78) and Luke Maurer (19.81) to clock a 1:26.95. Junior Mason Gonzalez was 19.61 anchoring the B relay.

Dang won the 100 breast (53.50), Affeld the 100 fly (46.62) and Maurer the 50 free (20.08), while Gonzalez edged Maurer in the 100 free, 43.92 to 44.23. Affeld went on to lead-off the winning 400 free relay in a 43.41, where Gonzalez split a 43.24 on the third leg and Stanford touched in 2:55.25.

Sophomore Shane Blinkman won the 200 back for Stanford at 1:43.12 after he went 54.74 for third in the 100 breast, while Daniel Roy dropped a 1:53.09 in the 200 breast ahead of Dang’s 1:55.86. Roy’s 1:51.64 from November still holds as the #2 time in the nation.

Junior Alex Boratto and sophomore Will Tarvestad were the other winners for Stanford, as Borratto was 48.10 in the 100 back and Tarvestad 1:38.64 in the 200 free.

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Taa
3 years ago

Who is this Affeld kid? Rips a 43/46 in his 100 fr/fly at a dual meet and he was not even a ranked recruit out of HS

Reply to  Taa
3 years ago

Fast riser out of high school – he actually cracked our top 20 recruits in the senior year re-rank: https://swimswam.com/re-rank-top-20-boys-ncaa-swimming-recruits-class-of-2020/

Taa
Reply to  Jared Anderson
3 years ago

Thanks for the link I see he snuck on at #20..interesting to review that list before the year end meets

Admin
Reply to  Taa
3 years ago
gkjhdslks
3 years ago

Let’s goooooo

SwimFan
3 years ago

Why so many people missing?

OooOOoOohhh
Reply to  SwimFan
3 years ago

covid🤫

About Karl Ortegon

Karl Ortegon

Karl Ortegon studied sociology at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, graduating in May of 2018. He began swimming on a club team in first grade and swam four years for Wesleyan.

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