2016 Men’s Pac-12 Champs: Day One Finals Live Recap

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

The first night of the men’s Pac-12 Championships are set to take place, with the USC Trojans trying to take home another conference title.

Despite just six men’s programs in the Pac-12, this will be a fiercely competitive meet. Tonight will feature the 200 medley relay and 800 freestyle relay, with Cal (1:24.62 and 6:16.41, respectively) going in as top seeds.

Notably, some of Cal’s best swimmers won’t be competing at this meet. Ryan Murphy, Josh Prenot, Jacob Pebley, and Jeremy DeZwirek will all be swimming at the Orlando Pro Swim Series this weekend. This is a move to help the three American and one Canadian (DeZwirek) athletes prepare for their respective Olympic Trials.

200 MEDLEY RELAY – TIMED FINAL

1. Arizona, 1:23.74
2. USC, 1:24.50
3. Cal, 1:24.62

It wasn’t one of the big three. Nope. Neither USC, Cal, nor Stanford were even within a half second of the Wildcats, who blasted a 1:23.74 for the first Pac-12 title of the meet.

Chatham Dobbs got things started with a 21.02 on the back leg, with Andrew Sovero providing a 23.58 on the breaststroke. The wow factor for Arizona came in the fly leg, where Chad Idensohn split an unreal 19.95. For some perspective, the fastest 50 fly split ever seems to be a 19.66. Joe Schooling did that last year, and he tied with Chris Brady‘s and Matt Targett‘s splits from 2009. With no official top times list for relay splits, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly where this puts Idensohn in history, but it’s not everyday that you see a sub-20 fly split.

Renny Richmond anchored in 19.19, a very strong split in and of itself. USC finished 2nd with Ralf Tribuntsov (21.11), Carsten Vissering (23.69), Alex Valente (20.39), and Kyle Grissom (19.31).

Cal had the 2nd fastest breaststroke split of the field with Connor Hoppe‘s 23.36, while Stanford, who finished 4th at 1:25.10, had the fastest anchor with Sam Perry (18.97). Cal opted to lead off with Andrew Seliskar (21.97), seeing as top backstrokers Murphy and Pebley are at the Orlando Pro Swim Series. Justin Lynch provided an impressive 20.16 fly split for them, while Tyler Messerschmidt anchored in 19.13.

Joining Perry for Stanford were Ryan Dudzinski leading off (21.38), Matt Anderson on breast (23.98), and Andrew Liang on fly (20.77). This is a young relay for the Cardinal– Dudzinski and Anderson are just freshmen, while Perry and Liang are sophomores.

ASU finished up 5th in 1:25.35, while Utah touched 6th in 1:27.92.

Interestingly enough, ‘Zona freshman Blair Bish had the fastest breaststroke split of the field with his 23.28 on the Wildcat B relay. That’s a good sign for the Wildcats moving forward.

TIME TRIALS

There were a bunch of time trials in between the two relays tonight, and the biggest swim came from Arizona sophomore Justin Wright. Swimming the 200 fly, Wright posted a school record time of 1:41.77. Not only is this an A cut, but it also ranks him 8th in the country so far this year. With most major conference meets already over (along with a lot of last chance meets), Wright will likely hold his place going into NCAAs. Stanford’s Jimmy Yoder had a strong 1:42.41 for 2nd in that time trial.

Another big race was the 200 breast time trial, where Wildcat Gage Crosby went 1:55.81 to just edge Cal’s Hunter Cobleigh (1:55.90).

800 FREESTYLE RELAY – TIMED FINAL

1. Cal, 6:16.63
2. USC, 6:16.77
3. Stanford, 6:18.16

This one really came down to the wire, something that is less common in the longer 800 free relay.

Cal and USC were the two teams above the rest, but it was Cal’s consistency that got them the win in the end. They started off with Trent Williams (1:34.63) and Andrew Seliskar (1:35.01), whereas the Trojans went with Patrick Mulcare (1:34.49) and Michael Domagala (1:33.91).

The third leg was key, as Kyle Coan‘s 1:33.75 was huge compared to Morten Klarskov‘s 1:36.43. Cal anchored with Long Gutierrez (1:33.24), though he was very nearly caught by Reed Malone of USC.

Malone, who has served on US national teams for 800 free relay duties, split a wild 1:31.94, nearly enough to track down Gutierrez and the Bears. Quiet throughout most of the year, Malone’s swim today says something about his preparedness for this meet. He’s entered in the 100 free, 200 free, and 500 free, with an exhibition 200 fly also entered.

Stanford (6:18.16) and Arizona (6:19.31) were next up. The Cardinal got bookend 1:33’s from Gray Umbach and Liam Egan, while the Wildcats’ best split was a 1:33.81 from Thane Maudslien.

ASU touched 5th in school-record time (6:24.26), while Utah finished 6th (6:26.15).

TEAM SCORES

With diving already done, USC and Stanford led the field before tonight’s relays with 127 points each. Factoring in the 200 medley and 800 free relay points, USC has a slim lead over Stanford, while Arizona and Cal have a lot of work to do in the pool to catch the leaders.

1. USC 195
2. Stanford 189
3. Utah 138
4. ASU 137
5. Arizona 101
6. Cal 80