2017 Men’s Pac-12 Champs: Underclassmen Lead the Way

2017 MEN’S PAC-12 CHAMPIONSHIPS

The 2017 Pac-12 Men’s Championships wrapped up last night with the Stanford Cardinal winning their 2nd-consecutive, and 33rd overall, Pac-12 Championship.  Stanford was led by a pair of freshman distance swimmers, Grant Shoults and True Sweetser, who went 1-2 in both the 500 free and 1650.  The California Golden Bears finished within 20 points of Stanford after winning four of five relays and having a three-peat winner in sophomore Andrew Seliskar.

Perhaps the big surprise of the meet was the performance of the Arizona State Sun Devils.  In their second year under Bob Bowman, ASU put a swimmer into the A-final of almost every event, and capped off the meet with a win in the 400 free relay.  Sun Devil freshman Cameron Craig was named swimmer of the meet after winning the 200 free and 100 free races in times of 1:31.71 and 41.95, respectively.

Pac-12 Video Recap (Courtesy of Pac-12 Network)

With wins by Seliskar, Pawel SendykRyan Murphy, and Matthew Josa, the Cal Bears look like they’re ready to take on the Texas Longhorns in Indianapolis in a little over two weeks.  Texas probably has a little more firepower at the top right now, so the Bears are going to need some of their second-tier guys who grabbed NCAA qualifying times this week to hold their tapers well and score points at NCAA’s, if Cal wants to contend for the win.

The University of Southern California picked up a couple wins in the breaststroke department, courtesy of Carsten Vissering (100 breast) and Steven Stumph (200 breast).  We didn’t see much out of Santo Condorelli, so we’ll have to to wait to find out if he’s having a post-Olympic lull, or if he has more in the tank for NCAA’s.  Arizona’s biggest swim probably came on the first night, when it’s 200 medley relay took 2nd in 1:23.34, good for 4th-fastest in the nation this year.  Utah finished last again, and had a couple tough relay DQ’s, but broke several school records, and had some great time trial swims.

Event Winners

1m Diving (Bradley Christensen, Stanford, 375.90)
3m Diving (Dashiell Enos, USC, 428.35)
Platform Diving (Tarek Abdelghany, Stanford, 399.45)
200 Medley Relay (Cal, 1:33.31)
800 Free Relay (Cal, 6:12.07)
500 Free (Grant Shoults, Stanford, 4:10.67)
200 IM (Andrew Seliskar, Cal, 1:41.24)
50 Free (Pawel Sendyk, Cal, 19.17)
200 Free Relay (Cal, 1:16.46)
400 IM (Andrew Seliskar, Cal, 3:39.53)
100 Fly (Matthew Josa, Cal, 45.41)
200 Free (Cameron Craig, ASU, 1:31.71)
100 Breast (Carsten Vissering, 51.45)
100 Back (Ryan Murphy, Cal, 44.76)
400 Medley Relay (Cal, 3:03.45)
1650 Free (True Sweetser, Stanford, 14:35.93)
200 Back (Ryan Murphy, Cal, 1:38.07)
100 Free (Cameron Craig, ASU, 41.95)
200 Breast (Steven Stumph, USC, 1:53.08)
200 Fly (Andrew Seliskar, Cal, 1:41.12)
400 Free Relay (ASU, 2:48.95)

Final Team Scores
1. Stanford – 784
2. California – 767
3. USC – 657
4. Arizona State – 531
5. Arizona – 360
6. Utah – 257

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ADSF
7 years ago

Alright, I admit that I expect a lot out of the Stanford Men’s team. I was Ogren’s fan since high school when he chose Stanford. He did well last year. I expected to see his name on the winning list this year but he sort of disappeared. I also expected to see Kremer to lead after Nolan graduated. Many of the sprinters didn’t do as well except Perry. I am probably more critical on the coaching staff. With exception of the distance group, admit it we sill weak in all others incl. breaststroke. I would like to see this change when we wee always in the hunt for NCAA championships. Now we are not even in the picture.

Peter Davis
Reply to  ADSF
7 years ago

You are being unduly harsh on Curtis. Disclaimer: I helped coach him when he was 17-18. His rest strategy was off last year, when he went 1:43/3:40 IMs at Pac12s and slower at NCAAs. This year he looked nice and tired at Pac12s, and could have 1:42/3:39 in store in a few weeks. He is also majoring in CS at a school like Stanford, so he could forget how to swim altogether and be doing fine in life.

Wrt team placement at NCAAs, I think that, for the first time in a bunch of years, Stanford actually held back a large group of guys at Pac12s. With the frosh distance guys, return of Kremer, more left in the tank… Read more »

ADSF
7 years ago

As a Stanford fan, I am happy to see how Saliskar has blossomed under Durden. On the contrary, Ogren has regressed under Knapp at Stanford.

Votehillary
Reply to  ADSF
7 years ago

Uh, it’s flat out wrong to say negative things about an NCAA individual qualifier, div 1. These are the fastest 30 swimmers short course per event in the USA if not the world

James
Reply to  Votehillary
7 years ago

The fact of the matter is, no matter how fast someone is in age-group or high school there is no guarantee they will continue to win or improve at every level. Achieving an NCAA qualification is about as fast as things in get in SCY, so the room for “improvement” starts to get quite thin.

DASF
Reply to  ADSF
7 years ago

You are obv not a Stanford fan. This is an inversion of the classic “I’m not a racist, but…” scenario

PK boo I\'m sad my name is too short now
7 years ago

Seliskar winning 3 titles and beating both other guys who won 2 titles in their common race and not winning swimmer of the meet is kinda lame.

EmZee

Cameron Craig was absolutely vital to his team’s success, and I think he fully deserved to be the swimmer of the meet when you consider the award in that light. Every race he was in, ASU set a new team record. 100 Free, 200 Free, 400 FR, 800 FR, 200 Medley and 400 Medley. His performances were absolutely incredible and I think Bowman is really proving himself as more than just “Michael Phelps’ Coach” with the amazing work he’s been doing at ASU.

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