Junior Peter Galli set the tone, pinning a pair of opponents Saturday and sophomore Nathan Butler made sure of victory with a pair of decisions at heavyweight. The pair helped the 18th-ranked Stanford wrestling team beat Virginia Tech, 20-15, in a nonconference match, and host Arizona State, 23-13, in a Pac-12 Conference match.
The Cardinal (9-2, 2-1 Pac-12) returns to action on Thursday, Feb. 4 with a home match against Oregon State.
Galli’s first pin, against the Hokies, gave Stanford its first lead of the contest. He pinned Ross Renzi at 174 pounds in 4:30.
Redshirt sophomore Garet Krohn pushed the Stanford lead to 17-12 with a 3-2 decision at 184 pounds over Bubba Scheffel, but West Virginia won the 197-pound, which put the Cardinal’s fate in Butler’s hand.
Butler sealed the win with an 8-1 decision over AJ Vizcarrondo at heavyweight. Tied 1-1 in the final period, Butler secured a takedown with about a minute left and tacked on four near fall points and 1:12 of riding time for the win.
Against the Sun Devils, Galli pinned Jacen Petersen after a 4-3 lead entering the final period. Galli has three pins on the season. He’s 15-8 overall and 7-0 in duals.
Butler upset 10th-ranked Tanner Hall, 2-0, to complete the day. He earned his first win over a ranked opponent this season. Butler is 8-1 in duals, 21-4 overall.
Connor Schram gave the Cardinal an early lead against the Sun Devils, winning at 125 pounds. Brian Rossi made it 7-0 with a dominating 7-1 decision over Cord Coronado at 133 pounds.
Freshman Joey McKenna held off ASU’s Robbie Mathers for a 4-0 decision to move to 16-1 overall and 8-0 in duals.
Ranked second at 141 pounds, McKenna notched a takedown in the first period, rode out Mathers in the second and then tallied an escape in the third to go with 2:50 of riding time.
At 165 pounds, redshirt junior Jim Wilson picked up a 10-2 major decision over Preston McCalmon. Ranked 18th, Wilson collected two takedowns, four nearfall points, an escape and 2:02 of riding time to move to 18-5 overall and 10-1 in duals this season.
Stanford won five of the 10 bouts, including major decisions by McKenna and Wilson, in beating West Virginia.
Women’s swimming
Sophomore Janet Hu won three individual events to propel third-ranked Stanford to a decisive 181-114 win over No. 7 Arizona on Saturday afternoon at Avery Aquatic Center. It was the 16th dual-meet win in the past 17 outings for the Cardinal.
Stanford (4-0, 4-0 Pac-12) travels to No. 18 UCLA on Friday and USC on Saturday. The mathcup with the Bruins will be televised on the Pac-12 Networks beginning at 2 p.m., and the meet with the Trojans is set to begin at noon.
Hu won the 50 freestyle in 23.18, finished first in the 200 backstroke in 1:55.46, and earned her third victory of the day in the 100 butterfly at 53.15. She was also a member of the winning 200 medley relay team that kicked off the meet.
“They all did a really good job of staying focused, being supportive of each other and racing hard,” Stanford coach Greg Meehan said. “I’m really pleased with how we are coming together, and moving forward together as a group. We are on a good path and I think that showed.”
Sophomore Gracia Leydon-Mahoney won the 3-meter diving title for the second time in as many days. She finished with a score of 291.08, while senior Alex Clay was second at 287.25. Clay was also the runner-up in the 1-meter event behind senior teammate Kelly Markle, who won with a score of 282.08.
“We had a great day,” Cardinal diving coach Patrick Jeffrey said. “In particular, Kelly Markle and Gracia Leydon-Mahoney had stellar performances. Lily and Alex were both impressive as well. I feel like we are on track for a really solid championship season.”
Senior Sarah Haase won the 100 breast in 1:01.06, junior Lia Neal earned the victory in the 200 free with a finish of 1:46.90, sophomore Ally Howe garnered a first-place finish in the 100 back at 53.60, and freshman Leah Stevens hit 10:00.00 to take the top spot in the 1,000 free.
Men’s swimming
No. 5 Stanford won its second Pac-12 Conference meet in as many days, defeating No. 15 Arizona, 173-118, on Saturday at Avery Aquatic Center.
“With USC and Cal being the only meets left, there’s not a whole lot of racing left so today was important,” said Stanford coach Ted Knapp. “Racing comes at a premium for us; even within the conference we only have a few dual meets, so it’s nice to see us take advantage of this opportunity.”
The Cardinal (4-0, 3-0 Pac-12) gained a quick advantage over the Wildcats (2-2, 1-2 Pac-12) with a win in the 200-yard medley relay. Ryan Dudzinski, Christian Brown, Paly grad Andrew Liang and Sam Perry (1:28.85) led the way.
Sean Duggan (1:38.69) and Jeff Garnier (1:39.21) took the top two places in the 200 freestyle, followed by a sweep of the podium in the 100-yard backstroke by Dudzinski (48.82), Ryan Arata (49.53) and Patrick Conaton (49.66).
Matt Anderson (55.84) continued his strong swimming with a win in the 100 breaststroke with Christian Brown (56.06) in second.
Jimmy Yoder (1:46.13) won the 200 butterfly with Gray Umbach (1:46.54) finishing second, followed by Perry (20.20) winning the 50-yard freestyle with Spencer DeShon (20.34) in second.
After a short break, Duggan (45.30) and Garnier (45.35) matched their finishes from the 200 free with a one-two swim in the 100 freestyle.
In diving, Tarek Abdelghany led the way with a third-place finish in the 1-meter (310.13) and a runner-up finish in the 3-meter (349.20).
Men’s volleyball
Behind senior Madison Hayden, No. 8 Stanford defeated visiting No. 4 UC Irvine, 25-19, 15-25, 25-20, 26-24, on Saturday in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match.
Hayden finished with a team-high 17 kills on .452 hitting to lead the Cardinal (5-1, 3-1 MPSF). As a team, Stanford hit .339 while holding UC Irvine (2-4, 1-3 MPSF) to a .252 clip. The Cardinal also doubled-up the Anteaters in the block column, 8-4.
Senior setter James Shaw controlled the offense with 41 assists, while also collecting six kills, four digs and four blocks. Redshirt junior Gabriel Vega finished one kill shy of a double-double as he racked up a match-high 12 digs.
Stanford’s middle blockers both hit over .500 for the match. Senior Conrad Kaminski was 8-0-15 (.533), while redshirt sophomore Kevin Rakestraw finished 5-1-7 (.571). Kaminski also recorded four blocks and three aces.
Sophomore libero Evan Enriques registered double-digit digs for the second time this season, totaling 10.
Freshman Jordan Ewert recorded six kills, six digs and three assists for the Cardinal.
By Stanford Athletics
By Stanford Athletics
By Stanford Athletics