2016 Men’s Pac 12 Championships: Day 3 Ups/Downs

For those unfamiliar with swimming terminology, the concept of “Ups” and “Downs” is a good way to track which teams performed best at prelims. In prelims, swimmers qualify for one of three finals heats: the top 8 finishers make the A final, places 9 through 16 the B final and places 17 through 24 the C final. In finals, swimmers are locked into their respective final, meaning a swimmer in the B heat (spots 9-16) can only place as high as 9th or as low as 16th, even if they put up the fastest or slowest time of any heat in the final.

With that in mind, we’ll be tracking “Ups” and “Downs”after each prelims session of the Men’s Pac-12 Championships, with “Up” referring to swimmers in the A final and “Down” to swimmers in the B final.  At this meet in particular, only the A and B finals are scored, so although swimmers may get a 2nd swim in the C final, they won’t score points. For this reason, we’ve only tallied “ups” and “downs” for Men’s Pac-12’s.

2016 MEN’S PAC-12 CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Wednesday, March 2nd- Saturday, March 5th
• Prelims 11AM | Finals 6PM (Pacific Time)
• Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center, Federal Way, WA
• Defending Champion: USC Trojans (Results)
• Live Results
• Psych Sheet
• Championship Central

Stanford jumped out to lead with a nice display of depth on the first full day of the meet Thursday, and look to extend their advantage tonight with a leading 20 swimmers in the top 16 tonight, including 11 A-finalists.  While the Cardinal have a big hole in the 100 breast, the Cardinal’s strength in the 400 IM (including top-seed Curtis Ogren) and 100 fly (3 up, 3 down) have set them up for success tonight.

USC and Cal still look to be theoretically within striking distance.  The Trojans have five swimmers scheduled to score in the 100 breast, including three in the A-final, and the Bears had their best session of the meet so far, putting a pair of swimmers in the A-final in four of five events.