On Friday, Jan. 16, in its last home meet of the season, UC San Diego men’s swimming lost to No. 8 Stanford 177-81 at Canyonview Aquatic Center. The Tritons returned to La Jolla after a tri-meet in Los Angeles on Jan. 9, where the men’s team beat UNLV 141-118 but lost to USC 174-87, coming in second overall.
“It’s awesome to host Stanford here, and we continue with our tradition to bring the Power Four schools that help us [promote] the University and the program but also grow as athletes,” head coach Marko Djordjevic said to The UCSD Guardian in a post-meet interview. “If you want to be the best, you have to run with the best.”
While the Tritons failed to place first in any of the 14 events, there were plenty of second- and third-place finishes throughout the afternoon. UCSD performed particularly well in the relays, landing on the podium in both.
The meet kicked off with the men’s 200-yard medley relay. Freshman William Seymour, junior Adrian Bellido, sophomore Hunter Cehelnik, and junior Zach Elian secured UCSD a second-place finish, only 1.50 seconds behind Stanford.
Cehelnik made it to the podium again in the 100-yard freestyle, finishing in second place with a time of 43.88 seconds. He touched just 0.38 seconds behind first-place Stanford.
The Tritons wrapped up the meet with second- and third-place finishes in the 200-yard freestyle relay. UCSD’s Team A — Cehelnik, Seymour, Elian, and senior Aidan Rikic — put up a time of 1:21.16, only 2.18 seconds behind first-place Stanford. Team B came just 2.02 seconds later, finishing third.
“It was our third week of racing in a row,” team captain senior Shane Burns said to The Guardian. “[Stanford is] a really strong school, top 10 in the country, so our goal today was just to come out and do our best. We could have been a little bit better, a little bit sharper on our details, but it was a fun meet overall.”
The Tritons’ next meet will be against Cal Baptist University in Riverside, where both the men’s and women’s sides will compete on Saturday, Jan. 24. The women’s team will then face crosstown rival University of San Diego at the USD Sports Center Pool on Jan. 31. UCSD will close off the regular season at the Big West Championships in February.
