Wilkens sets school record in winning 400 IM at NCAA championships
Despite coming up short in team points at the NCAA men's swimming and diving championships last weekend in Minneapolis, a few Cardinal swimmers did turn in some outstanding efforts.
As a team, Stanford did improve on last year's fourth place finish by placing second in points to champion Auburn, 340 to 496.5.
Cardinal junior Tom Wilkens won the national title in the 400 individual medley and set a new school record last Friday with a clocking of 3:45.59, breaking Jeff Kostoff's 1986 mark of 3:46.54. Wilkens also finished third in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 1:56.80, a personal best.
Fellow junior Sabir Muhammad placed third in the 100 butterfly (46.70) last Friday, which is a personal best and ranks second only to former Cardinal Pablo Morales (46.25). Muhammad also finished sixth in the 100 backstroke (46.70) on Friday, which is third best in Stanford history.
Sophomore Matthew Pierce grabbed a sixth place finish in the 200 butterfly last Saturday, with a time of 1:45.84, which is sixth best in Cardinal history.
Also last Saturday, sophomore Dod Wales came in eighth in the 100 freestyle (43.70), while junior Scott Claypool finished 11th (43.77).
The Stanford 400 free relay team placed second with a time of 2:53.67, which is a considerable improvement on last year's fourth place time of 2:54.38. The 400 medley relay team grabbed a third place finish with a swim of 3:10.53, better than last year's fifth place time of 3:10.53.
The last time Stanford won the NCAA men's swim title was back in 1993-94, when it racked up 566.5 points.
--Craig Wentz
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