Over the weekend, No. 3 Stanford women’s swimming had a dominant 180-119 over No. 8 Cal while No. 9 Stanford men’s swimming fell to No. 3 Cal by a final score of 175-125. The women’s meet was at Stanford while the men’s meet was in Berkeley.

GoStanford.com: Bell Breaks Record In Cardinal Win Over Cal

GoStanford.com: Bears Top Card In Big Splash

Starting with the women’s meet, Stanford junior Lucy Bell set a program record for best time in the 200 yard breaststroke with a time of 2:05.10 while also setting a personal record in the 100 yard breaststroke with a time of 58.30. Stanford redshirt junior Torri Huske won three events: 50 yard freestyle (21.30), 100 yard free style (47.78), and 100 yard butterfly (50.72).

As for the distance freestyle events, Stanford senior Aurora Roghair dominated with wins in the 1000 yard (9:24.78) and 500 yard (4:36.97). Her performance in the 1000 was a season best. To touch quickly on the diving, Stanford seniors Maria Papworth and Lauren Burch each won a title. Papworth in the 1-meter and Burch in the 3-meter.

To touch quickly on the men’s meet, Cal dominated Stanford as the only Cardinal wins came from senior Jack Ryan (1-meter & 3-meter diving), senior Andrei Minakov (100 & 200 butterfly), and senior Ron Polonsky (100 breaststroke). Cal is particularly tough to stop when swimming within the confines of their own pool and that certainly came through in this one.

Overall, this was a great weekend for both teams that won. For Stanford women’s swimming, they dismantled a strong Cal team, giving them a good deal of confidence heading into the ACC Championships. And then the same for Cal men’s swimming. They took care of business against a strong Stanford team. They too should feel good as they look ahead to the ACC Championships. Those championships for both men’s and women’s swimming will be February 18-22 in Greensboro, North Carolina.

P.S. One thing that shouldn’t be overlooked when discussing Cal swimming is the Teri McKeever scandal. McKeever was head coach of Cal women’s swimming from 1993-2023 before being fired due to explosive allegations of emotional and verbal abuse of Cal swimmers.

Back in 2023, Scott Reid of the Southern California News Group and Swim Swam reported that UC Berkeley is investigating how Cal AD Jim Knowlton and Associate AD Jennifer Simon-O’Neill responded to the allegations against McKeever and whether or not they were dismissive when student-athletes bravely came forward to share their horrifying tales of McKeever’s reign of terror. McKeever being the godmother of one of Simon-O’Neill’s children certainly raises a few eyebrows.

It’ll be interesting to see if there is a resolution in the coming months with respect to what responsibility Knowlton and Simon-O’Neill bear for the emotional trauma that Cal swimmers had to endure at the hands of McKeever. I’m sure the swimmers and their families would like some closure on that front.

CardinalSportsReport.com on Facebook, IG, Threads, X (Twitter), & Blue Sky: @StanfordRivals

Ben Parker on Facebook, IG, Threads, X (Twitter), & Blue Sky: @slamdunk406

Email: slamdunk406@yahoo.com

Join the conversation on CardinalSportsReport.com