Kostoff Helps Stanford Repeat in NCAA Swim

Jeff Kostoff, a disappointing fourth the previous night in defense of his championship in the 400-yard individual medley, lowered his American and NCAA records in the 1,650 freestyle Saturday to help the Stanford Cardinal win a second consecutive team title in the 63rd NCAA Division I men’s swimming and diving meet.

Kostoff set U.S. Open, American and NCAA records with a clocking of 14 minutes 37.87 seconds. The Stanford junior swam the distance in 14.38.22 in 1984.

Senior John Moffet, junior Pablo Morales and sophomore Sean Murphy also scored victories for Stanford Saturday.

The list of winners also included freshman Li Hongping of China, representing USC, on the 3-meter board, and junior Matt Biondi of California, who was voted the NCAA Swimmer of the Year award for a second year.

Li, who finished fourth in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, won the 3-meter diving title by two-tenths of a point over Doug Shaffer of UCLA. Shaffer, who won the 1-meter competition Thursday, was voted NCAA Diver of the Year by the coaches.

Stanford finished with 404 points. California was second with 335, followed by Texas with 325 1/2, Florida with 321 and UCLA with 288.

“Everyone says that the first one is the best,” Stanford Coach Skip Kenney said. “Maybe that’s true, but . . . . this one means more to me because as in anything in athletics, it’s hard to repeat.”

Biondi won the 100 freestyle in 42.03 to become the first swimmer to sweep the three NCAA freestyle sprints since Al Schwartz of Northwestern accomplished the triple in 1930.

Biondi also anchored California’s 400 relay team to a victory in NCAA-record time of 2:53.02. The time was also quicker than the U.S. Open and American marks of 2:53.15 set by UCLA when it set the old NCAA standard, but it was not recognized because the team that included Tommy Werner, Thomas Lejdstrom and Michael Soderlund did not have four Americans on it.

Morales won the 200 butterfly for the third consecutive year, giving him three individual victories this year and a career-total of eight. His time of 1:43.05 just missed his winning performance of 1:42.85 that gave him the NCAA, U.S. Open and American records in the event last year.

Murphy repeated in the 200 backstroke in 1:49.90. Moffet won the 200 breaststroke in 1:56.91.

Kostoff’s third NCAA title came after a long night of reviewing his Friday loss.

“I was really disappointed. All along coming into this meet I knew I was going to have a good 1,650 because of the training I’d done. I really wasn’t that concerned about that event,” Kostoff said.

“I didn’t get determined until this morning,” he said. “Last night, I was like banging my head against the wall. I talked with a lot of people.”