2015 Men’s Pac 12 Championship: Cal, USC Split Relays to Open Meet

PAC 12 MEN

• Dates: Wednesday, March 4th – Saturday, March 7th; Prelims 11AM/Finals 6PM (Diving February 25th-February 28th with women’s Pac-12s)
• Location: Federal Way, WA  (Pacific Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: California (results)
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Last one, fast one!  Night one of the 2015 Men’s Pac 12 Championship–the final swimming conference championship meet of the power conferences.  Cal looks to start the meet off on the right foot with another win in the 200 medley relay, while USC aims to repeat in the 800 free relay.

SCHEDULE

200 Medley Relay

Chuck Katis opened up a lead with a swift 23.67 breaststroke leg, giving Cal just enough room to hold off USC, 1:24.16 to 1:24.39.  The Trojans equaled or bettered the Bears in each of the other three relay legs, but the four-tenth differential between Katis and Morten Klarskov made all the difference.

A comparison of the two squads:

Cal:
Murphy – 21.21
Katis – 23.67 (44.88)
Lynch – 20.32 (1:05.20)
Messerschmidt – 18.96 (1:24.16)

USC:
Spinazzola – 21.21
Klarskov – 24.08 (45.29)
Carter – 20.21 (1:05.50)
Condorelli – 18.89 (1:24.39)

Both teams actually trailed after the opening 50, with David Nolan getting Stanford out to an early lead in a blistering 21.13.  The Cardinal, however, quickly fell back in the breaststroke lg before a strong fly leg from Andrew Liang (20.35) solidified them in the third spot in 1:25.13.

Despite having the fastest breaststroke (Kevin Cordes at 23.52) and freestyle (Brad Tandy at 18.74) legs in the field, Arizona settled for fourth in 1:25.17.  In-state rival Arizona State, who was actually well ahead at the 150 mark, settled for *fifth in 1:25.72, also under the NCAA ‘A’ standard.

*USC’s B relay was the fifth fastest team in 1:25.18, with a great front half from Ralf Tribuntsov (21.25) and Sergio Lujan-Rivera (23.96), but only A relays score points at this meet.

800 Free Relay

Returning three of four legs from their NCAA championship relay from last March, the USC Trojans pulled away from Stanford over the final leg to win in a time of 6:12.51, crushing the previous Pac 12 Meet record.

The defending champions built an early 2+ second lead behind great opening legs from Dylan Carter (1:33.55) and Reed Malone (1:32.86), but David Nolan closed the gap to just 0.04 with a 1:32.49 third leg that included a 22.9 final 50.  Luckily for USC, Cristian Quintero dropped a 1:31.65 over the final 200 to seal the win.  That 6:12.51 is now the second fastest time in the country this year, and is more than two seconds under the old, super-suited meet record from 2009.

Stanford finished in second in 6:14.98, which included Nolan and three others (Drew Cosgarea, Tom Kremer, and Thomas Stephens) all swimming between 1:34.0 and 1:34.4.  More importantly, that will put the Cardinal in the final heat at NCAA’s (they currently sit 5th nationally).  Last season, they finished third overall from the second-fastest heat.

Cal was a distance third in 6:19.30, including a solid a 1:34.39 leadoff from Trent Williams.