The final night of the men’s Pac-12 Championships is upon us, with a great three-team race brewing for the team title.
Stanford currently leads the way, and has the top seed in the 200 back with senior star Dave Nolan. But the USC Trojans are pushing hard for the title and coming off an outstanding morning that saw them take the top seed in three different events.
That includes senior Cristian Quintero, who will likely be named Swimmer of the Meet if he can win tonight’s 100 free, which would be his third event win of the week.
A huge morning swim from sophomore Michael Domagala put the USC Trojan atop the 200 fly, and perhaps the biggest upset of the morning was fellow sophomore Steven Stumph taking top billing in the 200 breaststroke over American record-holder Kevin Cordes of Arizona.
Also keep an eye on California, who sit third but could still make a run at the title. The Golden Bears have 2014 NCAA 200 back champ Ryan Murphy leading a talented crew into the final night.
Keep refreshing this page for event-by-event updates from Federal Way, Washington. And follow our live Twitter account, @SwimSwamLive, for the most up-to-date results from all of tonight’s action.
2015 Men’s Pac-12 Swimming & Diving Championships
- Dates: Wednesday, March 4th – Saturday, March 7th; Prelims 11AM/Finals 6PM
- Location: Federal Way, WA (Pacific Time Zone)
- Defending Champion: California (results)
- Live Results
- Psych Sheets
- Live Video: N/A
- Championship Central
1650 free
Stanford kicked off their final night on the right foot, getting a 1650 free win from junior Danny Thomson. Thomson went 14:50.19 to win the final heat and take home the win, fighting off tough USC freshman Pawel Furtek, who took second in 14:51.81.
That gives Stanford 6 of the last 7 Pac-12 men’s titles in the event, courtesy of Chad Latourrette, who won from 2009 to 2012, and Drew Cosgarea, who won last year.
The next two spots went to Arizona, with Ty Fowler (14:56.09) and Chris Wieser (14:58.77). Those four were the only men to crack 15 minutes on the night.
Utah’s Bence Kiraly went 15:01.05 for fifth overall, and the next finisher actually came out of the morning heats. Ted Singley of USC went 15:02.37 in the early heats and wound up moving up to 6th overall. Stanford freshman Liam Egan (15:04.71) was 7th, and another afternoon heat swimmer, Arizona’s Nick Hogsed, rounded out the top 8 in 15:07.94.
That leaves Stanford leading USC by just 50 points, and those totals include Platform diving, which has already wrapped up, though it technically comes later on in the event order.
200 back
He was only the 4th-best qualifier out of prelims, but defending NCAA champ and NCAA record-holder Ryan Murphy was not going to be denied his Pac-12 title in the 200 back. The sophomore went 1:38.34 to blow away a tough field, breaking the Pac-12 meet record and coming within a second of his own NCAA record set last year.
Murphy beat Stanford senior Dave Nolan, his rival of sorts, in the third meeting of the two. Murphy won two of the three showdowns, but Nolan probably gets bonus points for his American record 200 IM in what was a spirited week-long series between two of the nation’s best all-around swimmers.
Cal’s Jacob Pebley got third in what is a strong event for the Bears. His 1:40.48 was just behind Nolan’s 1:40.02.
Stanford freshman Patrick Conaton added a little time in the final, but still went 1:41.36 to round out the top four, each of whom went 1:40 or better on the day. Stanford’s Drew Cosgarea also added a little time to go 1:42.32 for fifth.
Arizona’s Thane Maudslien (1:43.07) and Arizona State’s Perry Barkley (1:43.09) engaged in a heated cross-state battle, with Maudslien taking sixth overall. Cal’s Jesse Ryckman rounded out the A heat in 1:43.57.
A weak event for USC saw Stanford start to increase its lead, now heading the field by 92. Cal also made some headway from third place, moving to within 55 of the Trojans.
100 free
But USC regained their momentum in a big way one event later, going 1-2 in the 100 free with four guys in the top 6 finishers. Cristian Quintero led the way and probably wrapped up the Swimmer of the Meet award as the only triple-event winner of the meet so far. His 42.21 just eked out the win over teammate Santo Condorelli‘s 42.27.
Cal’s Seth Stubblefield, the 100 fly champ, went 42.69 for third, beating out Utah’s Nick Soedel for the spot. Soedel was 42.86.
Then came the next two Trojans, with Ralf Tribuntsov continuing his stellar freshman campaign with a 42.88 and sophomore Reed Malone going 43.03 for sixth.
Cal’s Tyler Messerschmidt, who won a swim-off just to get into the A final, got 7th in 43.21, moving up past Stanford freshman Sam Perry (43.35). Meanwhile the loser of that swim-off, Stanford’s Tom Stephens, faded to 15th in 43.77, making the swim-off essentially a 15-point swing between the two teams.
USC now sits just 39 points back of Stanford for the lead, and holds top seeds in both of the next two events. With their excellent 100 free finishes, USC is probably also the favorite in the 400 free relay to close the night.
200 breast
This morning’s breakout performer, Trojan Steven Stumph, was even more impressive at night, proving his swim was far from a fluke. Stumph, a former national high school record-holder who struggled in his freshman season in Southern Cal, won the Pac-12s 200 breast title over two of the most impressive names here, Josh Prenot and Kevin Cordes.
Stumph went 1:52.50, taking another half-second off his best time from prelims. This morning’s swim was a several-second drop already. Stumph went out fast and held off a late charge from Prenot, who went 1:52.61 for second place.
Cordes, the two-time defending NCAA champ and American record-holder, seemed to be lacking his own closing burst, an asset that’s turned him into the best collegiate breaststroker in history. Cordes was second at the 100-mark, but lost track of Stumph and actually got run down by Prenot, finishing in 1:53.55 for third-place.
Cal’s Chuck Katis was 1:54.30 for fourth, bridging the gap between the top few and the rest of the field, who all came in together.
USC’s Ridge Altman went 1:55.04 to touch out Arizona State’s Thibaut Capitaine (1:55.07) for fifth, and then two more Trojans battled for 7th, with Andrew Malone going 1:55.66 to Morten Klarskov‘s 1:55.84.
That event gave USC its first lead of the night, a 5-point advantage over Stanford with platform diving already factored in. Cal is still about 100 back of Stanford for second.
200 fly
It hasn’t been the best of meets overall for Cal, but the Bears salvaged a great finish in the 200 fly, sneaking up to go 1-2 over top-seeded Michael Domagala of USC.
Long Gutierrez led the charge for Cal, going 1:43.23, and teammate Adam Hinshaw was close behind in 1:43.61. Domagala added about a second from his outstanding prelims swim to take third in 1:43.74.
Just a hundredth behind him was Stanford’s top finisher, Gray Umbach (1:43.75), and Arizona first-year Justin Wright went 1:43.85 to close out a tightly-bunched front of the pack.
Stanford’s Tom Kremer was 1:44.10 for sixth with another Arizona freshman, Rasmus Skjaerpe, right behind in 1:45.16. Arizona State also put a rookie into the A heat, with Patrick Park going 1:45.81 for 8th.
With just one event remaining, USC nurses a 3-point lead over Stanford, meaning whichever team finishes higher in the final relay wins the meet.
400 free relay
The Trojans closed out their first men’s Pac-12 title since 1979 by winning the 400 free relay in 2:49.50. That beat Stanford by just over three seconds to seal the team win by 9 points.
USC now ranks #3 nationally in the event, with Santo Condorelli leading with a 41.92 split. Anchor Cristian Quintero was 42.02, and freshman leadoff man Ralf Tribuntsov 42.69. Sophomore Reed Malone also helped the relay win, splitting 42.87.
Their closest challengers were Cal, who would have finished just over 2:50, but were DQ’d for a false start on anchor Seth Stubblefield. Sophomore Ryan Murphy had the field’s best split of 41.76 on that relay.
That moved Stanford up to second place in 2:52.63. With Dave Nolan‘s event entries all used, up the fastest split came from Tom Stephens in 42.53, with freshman Sam Perry also putting up a nice leadoff leg of 43.18.
Arizona took third overall in 2:54.22. Senior Brad Tandy led off in 43.62, and Brian Stevens was 43.10 for the Wildcats. Their in-state rivals ASU finished just .08 back at 2:54.30, getting a 43.22 from Tadas Duskinas.
That ultimately left USC atop the points by 9, their first conference title since the 70s. Stanford took second with Cal a distant third.
Team Scores
- USC – 818.5
- Stanford – 809.5
- California – 673
- Arizona – 508
- Arizona State – 309
- Utah – 283
I am a Cal parent and was there at every session. There was no “no means no” cheer. Trust me, we’re not that clever. The cheer was “no beans.” We don’t even know what “no beans” means. We were trying to have fun with the boys and meant no ill will to the other teams. There is great respect with the Cal parent group for all the swimmers on all of the teams. No way was there any disrespect intended for anyone. Perhaps you are just trolling for a response, but nothing about your post is correct.
In the 2Fly, I forgot Hinshaw, I meant to say Gutierrez AND HINSHAW were in 5th/6th until the last lap.
Just watched all the tapes on the Pac-12 channel. A couple observations of the last day:
-In the 1650, USC’s Furtek started his back half surge way too late, he appeared to have too much left in the tank and may have won had he started picking it up even a 50 earlier.
-Interesting to see USC cheering for Cal over Stanford in several races, especially the 50 swim-off,
-Quintero looked sharp and controlled in everything. Expect big things in a few weeks and faster than last year.
-The actual best race of the day, although slowish, was the 2Fly, where 6 swimmers were in contention in the last lap and Gutierrez were in 5th and… Read more »
Cal’s actions were clearly out of bounds. But considering the Stanford Marching Bank makes its reputation on “edgy” and “irreverent” sports halftime routines (a.k.a. to the rest of the Pac-12 as tasteless and juvenile schtick) a little payback in this heated Bay Area rivalry should not be that unexpected.
Also, a freshman on their team was, in all likelihood, caught while raping a person a few weeks ago. Stanford swimming recruited this person, and spent a lot of time with this person. It is profoundly shameful for this organization. They might hear about it for a while. Perhaps the people who stopped the rape in progress are lying about what happened, or misunderstood somehow. But probably not. Being reminded by people outside the team that you should not rape people or tolerate rapists might not be the worst thing.
Very poignant post. Congrats. Fight on!
Very proud of our boys!!! Well fought meet. Also congrats to Stanford! What a fight they had in them. Great meet all around. However as a spectator of the sport and a parent, I’m very disappointed in the way Cal, even their fans and parents, behaved. At one point in the meet they (both swimmers AND parents) chanted a very inappropriate cheer presumably aimed at Stanford. This behavior is disgusting. In other sports actions such as these get penalized or fined, I hope the NCAA hears about this and gives some type of warning. Cal should own up to this and at least apologize. This isn’t swimming. I know feelings run deep in the PAC12, but that’s something else. That’s… Read more »
So what were they chanting exactly?
SWIMFAN – there was concern that they were chanting “no means no” with regard to the Brock Turner situation. Cal says that they were chanting “no beans,” which is a reference to an inside joke about someone ordering a breakfast burrito with “no beans”.
The Cal and Stanford parents have smoothed over the misunderstanding – I’ve heard that from parents on both teams. It appears as though the USC parents are still concerned about the matter, and would like to make pursue the issue further with the NCAA.
Only thing missing was Coach Daland!
Will Hamilton: scratches all. Sick? Does he have times to get in the NCAA meet? Anyone know what happened?
Yeah he and Lynch were too sick to swim and flew home early .