2018 Men’s Pac-12 Championships: Day 3 Prelims Live Recap

2018 MEN’S PAC-12 SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Wednesday, February 28 – Saturday, March 3
• Federal Way, WA (Pacific Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Stanford (2x) (results)
• Live Results
• Live Video
• Championship Central
• NCAA Qualifying
• Day 3 prelims heat sheet

Day 3 of the Men’s Pac-12 Championships will feature the 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast, and 100 back. Finals tonight will also have the 40 medley relay. 200 free Pac-12 meet record holder Cameron Craig will face off with a very competitive field today including Dylan Carter, Grant House and Grant Shoults. Meanwhile Matthew Josa will face off with a very tight 100 fly field including Justin Lynch, Santo Condorelli, Andrew Porter, and Andrew Liang, all of whom are sub-46 and separated by about half a second.

400 IM

• NCAA record – 3:33.42, Chase Kalisz (2017)
• Pac-12 record – 3:38.58, Josh Prenot (2014)
• Meet record – 3:38.83, Josh Prenot (2015)

Top 8

1. Curtis Ogren (Stanford) – 3:41.63
2. Andrew Seliskar (Cal) – 3:44.03
3. Sean Grieshop (Cal) – 3:44.07
4. Alex Liang (Stanford) – 3:44.25
5. Nick Thorne (Arizona) – 3:44.26
6. Abrahm DeVine (Stanford) – 3:44.41
7. Ken Takahashi (Cal) – 3:45.11
8. Michael Thomas (Cal) – 3:45.46

Curtis Ogren led the way by a comfortable margin this morning, coming in 2 and a half seconds ahead of the rest of the field. The rest of the top 8 was incredibly tight, with just .38 seconds separating 2nd from 6th. Ogren had the fastest front half by far, throwing down a 50.20 fly split and 55.35 for a 1:45.55 on the first 200. Andrew Seliskar put up the fastest breast split in the field, going 1:01.32. Alex Liang was very fast coming home, splitting a 51.44 on the freestyle leg.

Cal and Stanford combined to take more than half the scoring finals spots, with Cal bringing back 4 for the A final tonight and 1 to the B, while Stanford is bringing back 3 A finalists and 1 B finalist.

100 FLY

• NCAA record – 43.58, Caeleb Dressel (2017)
• Pac-12 record – 44.18, Austin Staab (2009)
• Meet record – 44.66, Austin Staab (2011)

Top 8

1. Justin Lynch (Cal) – 45.25
2. Matthew Josa (Cal)/Zheng Quah (Cal) – 45.66
3. –
4. Chatham Dobbs (Arizona) – 45.72
5. Brad Zdroik (Stanford) – 45.84
6. Andrew Liang (Stanford) – 46.07
7. Pawel Sendyk (Cal) – 46.26
8. Ben Scott (Utah) – 46.28

Justin Lynch led the way for a a trio that took the top seed for tonight and tied for 2nd. Lynch was out very fast, posting a 20.97 on the first 50, but it was Chatham Dobbs of Arizona who threw down the fastest split, coming in at 20.88. Lynch came in just under the NCAA ‘A’ cut of 45.49, and the top 5 from this morning are all safely within position to be invited to the NCAAs regardless of the ‘A’ cut. Ben Scott gave Utah its first A finalist of the meet in a swimming event.

Ryan Hoffer finished just outside the top 8, coming in 9th with a 46.41.

200 FREE

• NCAA record – 1:30.46, Townley Haas (2016)
• Pac-12 record – 1:31.20, Simon Burnett (2006)
• Meet record – 1:31.71, Cameron Craig (2017)

Top 8

1. Cameron Craig (Arizona State) – 1:33.97
2. Grant House (Arizona State) – 1:34.14
3. Dylan Carter (USC) – 1:34.32
4. Bryce Mefford (Cal) – 1:34.57
5. Liam O’Haimhirgin (Utah) – 1:34.72
6. Trenton Julian (Cal) – 1:34.74
7. Jorge Iga Cesar (Arizona) – 1:34.81
8. Kyle Coan (Cal) – 1:34.96

Cameron Craig moved one step closer to defending his 200 free title, winning the prelim by a slight margin over teammate Grant House. Craig looked relatively relaxed, particularly on the back half of the race, so he may have a lot more in store for tonight. Kyle Coan, who came in 8th to narrowly make it into the A final tonight by .01 seconds over Grant Shoults, took the race out the fastest, posting a 45.62 (21.82/23.80) on the first 100, but then came back in the slowest split of the top 8 – 49.34. USC qualified their first A finalist of the day in Dylan Carter, who came in 3rd.

100 BREAST

• NCAA record – 50.03, Caeleb Dressel (2018)
• Pac-12 record – 50.04, Kevin Cordes (2014)
• Meet record – 51.23, Kevin Cordes (2014)

1. Carsten Vissering (USC) – 52.03
2. Connor Hoppe (Cal) – 52.32
3. Matt Anderson (Stanford) – 52.73
4. Matt Whittle (Cal) – 52.87
5. Brennan Pastorek (Stanford) – 52.89
6. Hank Poppe (Stanford) – 52.92
7. Mario Koenigsperger (USC) – 52.95
8. Matthew Salerno (Arizona) – 53.09

Carsten Vissering claimed the top seed for tonight by posting a 52.03. He was out the fastest of anyone in the field, throwing down a 24.21 on the first 50. Almost all of the A finalists dropped time from their season bests to qualify for the A final tonight, with Connor Hoppe being the lone exception. Stanford had yet another big prelims team performance, qualifying 3 to the top 8.

100 BACK

• NCAA record – 43.49, Ryan Murphy (2016)
• Pac-12 record – 44.17, Ryan Murphy (2015)
• Meet record – 44.76, Ryan Murphy (2017)

1. Ralf Tribuntsov (USC) – 45.47
2. Chatham Dobbs (Arizona) – 45.69
3. Robert Glinta (USC) – 45.77
4. Ryan Dudzinski (Stanford) – 45.84
5. Thomas Anderson (Arizona) – 46.16
6. Paul Ungur (Utah) – 46.32
7. Daniel Carr (Cal) – 46.35
8. Zachary Poti (Arizona State) – 46.37

Ralf Tribuntsov came away with the win in prelims, dropping a sizable .54 seconds from his season best. Chatham Dobbs, who also dropped over a second from his season best in the 100 fly this morning, dropped a whopping 3.09 seconds from his season best to not only earn the 2nd seed for tonight, but also will be good enough for an invite to the NCAAs. Arizona has started to accumulate an NCAA championship team that is looking pretty good.

USC freshman Robert Glinta blasted a 21.85 on the first 50, which led him to a season best 45.77 and 3rd seed for tonight. That time will also be good for an NCAA invite, and while USC started off the session a little sluggish today in terms of potential points for tonight, their last 3 events saw 5 A final qualifiers.

Paul Ungur gave Utah its 2nd A finalist of the day, and will need to shave a little time off his season best 46.04 to guarantee himself an invite to the NCAAs.