Sports Shorts
KNIGHTS FUND . . . Nearly two months after the Menlo School boys’ tennis team won the NorCal title, they gathered to make one more delivery. This time, they were at Stanford for the Bank of the West Tournament to present a $10,000 check for East Palo Alto Tennis and Tutoring. On opening night of the tournament, the boys and coach Bill Shine were honored for their ace-athon, a fundraiser based on how many aces the players delivered during the season. Though several Menlo players were on vacation, six were on hand to present the check: Nate Safran, Jake Rudolph, David Roy, Kylee Santos, Michael Quezada and Lane Leschly, who imagined the idea. The boys surpassed their goal of 100 aces with 345 for the season. TENNIS CHANGES . . . The ITA is inaugurating a new, shorter dual meet format for Division I college tennis beginning in the fall. Highlighting the format changes are switches to no-ad scoring from regular scoring, one set of doubles rather than an 8-game pro set and no warm-up with opponents. Patrick McEnroe, no-ad scoring while at Stanford, supports the format. “This process has been inclusive of input from the college coaches through the ITA, USTA and the NCAA: all parties that have a vested interest in the long-term growth, popularity and relevance of college tennis,” McEnroe said.
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Tom Wilkins (left) was a three-time NCAA champion in the individual medley races; Pablo Morales won seven national titles in the butterfly and Brian Retterer won three titles in the backstroke.
Stanford men’s swimming celebrates 100 years Cardinal program has produced NCAA titles, Olympians and world record holders by Mark Soltau
T
he 2014-15 season will be the 100th on The Farm for the Stanford men’s swimming team. The storied program has produced eight NCAA titles, 62 conference crowns, more than 100 All-Americans, dozens of Olympians and nine world record holders. Established in 1916 and guided by head coach Ernie Brandsten (1916-1947), who doubled as the diving coach, Stanford dropped its first intercollegiate dual meet to Cal, 41-27. Brandsten’s squads improved quickly, though, churning out 17 consecutive conference titles and many national and AAU champions in the 1920s and 30s, sparked by three-time Olympic gold med-
alist Norman Ross. Ross set 13 world records at international distance and 18 more in AAU competition. Other key contributors included John McKelvey, Austin Clapp, Ted Wiget and Emmet Cashin. Brandsten’s wife, Greta, earned an Olympic gold medal in diving in 1912 competing for Sweden, and later coached the Stanford women’s swimming team. Tom Haynie followed Brandsten (1948-1960) and the program didn’t skip a beat. During his 13year tenure, Stanford compiled an 84-9 dual meet record and won 11 of 13 league championships. Haynie was a star swimmer at Michigan, where he led the Wolverines to NCAA titles in 1937 and 1939. At Stanford, his teams went
24-0 against Cal, 13-0 against UCLA and 11-2 against USC. Among his distinguished swimmers were world record holder Robin Moore and Olympians George Harrison and Paul Hait. “He was the kind of coach who cared for his swimmers,” said Jim Gaughran, who swam for Haynie and succeeded him as head coach. “He was a great influence on all of us.” The same can be said of Gaughran. He coached Stanford to its first NCAA team title in 1967 at a meet hosted by Michigan State in East Lansing, Mich. The championship came down to the final event: the 800-yard freestyle relay; with Stanford prevailing to edge USC, 275-260. “Probably the highlight of my coaching career,” said the 82-
year old Gaughran, now retired and residing in Carmel Valley. “We broke the American record by six and a half seconds, which is unprecedented. Those kids all swam lifetime bests, some by several seconds.” Two of his stars, Greg Buckingham and Dick Roth, attended nearby Menlo-Atherton High School. Both won two events and swam on the winning relay in the 1967 NCAA meet. Gaughran never intended to coach. After swimming and playing water polo on The Farm, he attended Stanford’s law school and was working in Sacramento as the deputy attorney general for the State of California when athletic director Al Masters called (continued on next page)
BANK OF THE WEST
Williams remains at the top of her game World No. 1 has a response to Wimbledon failure By Rick Eymer nce again, the California girl used one of her favorite hardcourt tournaments to set the record straight. Serena Williams left no doubt as to who the best player is in the world of women’s tennis. She showed it by shaking off a bad start and playing to near perfection the rest of the way. The top-ranked and top-seeded Williams won her WTA-leading fourth title of the season, beating third-seeded Angelique Kerber, 7-6 (1), 6-3, in the championship
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match of the Bank of the West Classic last Sunday. On Wednesday, Williams swamped Australia’s Samantha Stosur, 6-0, 6-2, in a second round match of the Rogers Cup in Montreal, showing she learned a lot while playing at Stanford’s Taube Family Tennis Center. Williams had trouble with her first set all week at the Bank of the West. Not so in Montreal, where she was scheduled to meet Czech Republic’s Lucie Safarova, (continued on page 71)
Harjanto Sumali
OAKS REHIRE TUFO . . . The old coach is now the new coach. David Tufo was rehired as an assistant baseball coach at Menlo College. He returns to the school as Jake McKinley’s top assistant, a role that includes infielders and team offense. McKinley also announced secondyear assistant coach Jason Ochart will assume a full-time role as hitting coach.
Speedo (Morales); Tim Morse (Retterer); stanfordphoto.com (Wilkins)
WATER POLO ROSTER . . . The USA Women’s Senior National Team announced the 13 athletes that will compete for Team USA at the upcoming FINA World Cup, which begins Tuesday in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. Among the players named are Stanford grads Annika Dries and Melissa Seidemann and current Cardinal players Maggie Steffens and Kiley Neushul. Sacred Heart Prep grad KK Clark was also named to the team, coached by Mountain View native Adam Krikorian. The Americans are the defending champions from 2010 in Christchurch, New Zealand. The United States opens competition with a match against South Africa . . . The Men’s Senior team also announced its roster for the FINA World Cup that begins Aug. 19 in Kazakhstan. Stanford seniors Connor Cleary and Alex Bowen and junior Bret Bonanni were named to the squad.
World No. 1-ranked Serena Williams won her third title in the Bank of the West Classic and the 61st of her storied career. She’s 17-2 lifetime on the courts at Taube Family Tennis Center. www.PaloAltoOnline.com • Palo Alto Weekly • August 8, 2014 • Page 69