Annual King & Queen of the Pool Pentathlon
- Friday, September 20, 2024
- Anderson Aquatic Center, San Luis Obispo, CA
- SCY (Yards)
- RESULTS
Cal Poly hosted its annual King & Queen of the Pool Pentathlon with Cal Berkeley on Friday. In this ‘pentathlon’ meet, all swimmers compete in the 100 of each stroke, plus the 100 IM. The swimmer whose overall combined time from the 5 races is named the King or Queen of the Pool. This year, Cal freshman Zachary Tan was named the King of the Pool, while Fifth Year Isabelle Stadden earned Queen of the Pool honors for the 3rd-straight year.
A talented IM’er, Tan only clocked the fastest time in the field in one of the events, the 100 IM. Tan was 49.97 in the 100 IM, touching as the only swimmer in the field to go under 50 seconds, and one of only two to go under 51 seconds. He was 50.06 in the 100 fly, less than 2 seconds off his career best of 48.25. His 100 back time of 50.01 was only 1.03 seconds off his personal best of 48.98, and his 100 breast time of 54.98 matched that, coming in just 1.04 seconds off his top mark of 53.94. Tan managed a 46.33 on freestyle, which was less than a second off his PB of 45.43.
In total, Tan finished with a time of 4:11.35, narrowly beating out sophomore teammate Roman Jones, who came in 2nd with a total time of 4:11.90. Jones was 49.26 on fly, 49.43 on back, and 45.70 on free, however, his 56.03 on free and 51.48 in the 100 IM were far enough off Tan’s time for Tan to overtake the lead. Another notable swim came from Cal freshman Nans Mazellier, who clocked a field-leading 44.58 in the 100 free.
Meanwhile, on the women’s side of things, Stadden’s versatility was on full display and she ended up winning handily. Stadden went 54.53 on the 100 fly, 52.86 on the 100 back, 1:04.99 on the 100 breast, 50.91 on the 100 free, and finished it off with a 57.07 in the 100 IM. The bulk of Stadden’s lead came on the 100 back, where she posted the top time in the field by well over a second. In the end, she won Queen of the Pool by 6.1 seconds over Cal freshman Mia West.
Cal’s fly group looked very solid in the women’s 100 fly, seeing senior Lizzy Cook lead the way with a 54.32, while grad student Lilou Ressencourt went 54.49, freshman Mia West was 54.50, sophomore Ava Chavez clocked a 54.55, and senior McKenna Stone went 54.97, keeping in mind that Stadden posted a 54.53.
Mewen Tomac is not on the roster. Maybe nothing too significant since the Olympics in the home country wasn’t too long ago.
According to Cal coaches, they’re still working on his eligibility situation.
Do they keep records for the meet?
Zachary tan is a freshman?? Wasn’t he in the 2022 recruiting class?
Yes, but he deferred enrollment to train for the Olympics and compete for Singapore this summer. This meet also highlighted the return of Matthew chai to Cal’s roster after not being on it last year. Of note, with the exception of Robin Hansen, none of the other men’s ncaa qualifiers competed at this meet. I also noticed Rob Alexy, the younger brother, was not on roster nor at this meet. Has he retired?
Really good eye on Matt Chai! It would be awesome to see him make a comeback 😃
I think he also had to complete his mandatory military service for singapore
He deferred for two years to fulfill mandatory military service I believe. Don’t think it had anything to do with Olympic training.
Rob Alexy switched to the varsity rugby team. Most of the big names (Jack Alexy, Lasco, Rose, Jett, Seeliger) were at Abbey Weitzeil’s wedding.
I am guessing that Matt Jensen also attended the wedding.
Abby’s husband is former Cal sprinter Michael Jensen.
correct. Durden was also in attendance, as well as a large group of recent alums (Mefford, Carr, Julian, Hoffer et al)
SwimSwam could literally make a whole article about the amount of swimmers who attended that wedding. Also, Terri McKeever was there