2019 Men’s Pac-12 Champs: Day 4 Finals Live Recap

2019 MEN’S PAC-12 CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Wednesday, March 6 – Saturday, March 9 (Diving Feb. 27-March 2)
• Federal Way, WA (Pacific Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Cal (1x) (results)
• Live results
• Championship Central
• Psych Sheets
• Saturday Finals Heat Sheet

It’s here! The last session of the last conference meet of the 2018-2019 season! Let’s take a brief to moment to look at where we are heading into the session. Cal all but has the team title locked up, while it appears Stanford and Arizona have 2nd and 3rd locked down respectively. There is a team battle set for tonight, and it’s actually between USC and Utah for 5th. Utah trails by 38 points heading into the session, but barring any disqualifications, the Utes will outscore the Trojans in this session. Will it be enough for Utah to overtake USC? Stay tuned to find out. I’ll be updating the scores after each event.

The night will kick off with the fastest heat of the 1650, where there is sure to be a fun race. We’ll be watching for Victor Johansson, the USC freshman who won the 500 free on Thursday, to see if he can pull off another upset. Andrew Seliskar and Reece Whitley will get to go at it in the 200 breast, an event in which Seliskar holds the meet record. Zheng Quah has the fastest 200 fly time in the NCAA this season, but was well off this morning. Will he be at full speed tonight? We’ll also get to see the impressive Cal sprint squad one more time at this meet, as they have 3 swimmers in the 100 free A final.

FINAL TEAM STANDINGS

1. Cal – 948
2. Stanford – 716
3. Arizona – 570
4. Arizona State – 459.5
5. USC – 366.5
6. Utah – 335

1650 FREE – TIMED FINALS:

• Pac-12 Meet Record: True Sweetser – 14:35.93
• Pac-12 Record: Chad La Tourette – 14:24.35
• NCAA Record: Clark Smith – 14:22.41

1. Nick Norman (CAL) – 14:33.96
2. James Murphy (STAN) – 14:44.07
3. Sean Grieshop (CAL) – 14:44.83

Nick Norman was a dominant force in the fast heat of the mile, tearing to a new season best and breaking the Pac-12 meet record, which stood at 14:35.93. The previous record holder, True Sweetser (Stanford), came in 4th with a 14:49.41. Notably, Victor Johansson was a second off his season best after taking the Pac-12 title in the 500 free earlier in the meet with a big time drop.

Norman led the race from the first 100, and quickly built up a sizeable lead over the field. He turned at the 1000 mark in 8:51.46. Norman’s personal best is 14:30.82 from last year’s NCAAs. The top seed, Brooks Fail (Arizona) came in 5th, swimming almost 7 seconds off his season best with a time of 14:50.88. Arizona State’s Benjamin Olszewski dropped 10 seconds from his season best to land himself in the top 8. He came in 7th with a time of 14:56.21.

200 BACK – FINALS:

• Pac-12 Meet Record: Ryan Murphy – 1:38.07
• Pac-12 Record: Ryan Murphy – 1:35.73
• NCAA Record: Ryan Murphy – 1:35.73

TOP 3 FINISHERS:

1. Bryce Mefford (CAL) – 1:39.13
2. Zachary Poti (ASU) – 1:39.88
3. Daniel Carr (Cal) – 1:40.25

Bryce Mefford, a Cal sophomore took the 200 back title thanks to a very speedy back half split of 50.30. Mefford’s time was a season best, but his lifetime best is 1:38.48 from last year’s NCAAs. Zachary Poti of Arizona State broke 1:40 for the first time in his career, getting his hand on the wall 2nd. Daniel Carr, another Cal Bear, was 3rd in a season best as well.

Stanford’s Patrick Conaton (1:40.92) and Glen Conward (1:41.97) grabbed 4th and 5th respectively. Conaton’s time gives him a good shot of earning an invitation to the NCAAs in a few weeks. Stanford also picked up a 7th place finish from Ben Ho. Patrick Mulcare (USC), the 2nd fastest 200 backstroker in the NCAA so far this season, came in 2nd in the B final, swimming a 1:41.83, well off his season best of 1:38.

utah has cut its deficit between them and USC to under 30 points after this event.

100 FREE – FINALS:

• Pac-12 Meet Record: Vlad Morozov – 41.38
• Pac-12 Record: Vlad Morozov – 40.76
• NCAA Record: Caeleb Dressel – 39.90

TOP 3 FINISHERS:

1. Pawel Sendyk  (CAL) – 41.95
2. Michael Jensen (CAL) – 42.15
3. Austin Phillips (Utah) – 42.29

After winning the 50 free earlier in the meet, Pawel Sendyk came back with a vengeance tonight after barely making it in 8th this morning. Sendyk shed 0.45 seconds off his season best, which was also his lifetime best, to break 42 seconds for the first time in his career. The time will put Sendyk in the top 10 seeds for NCAAs. Michael Jensen was not far behind his teammate, touching 2nd in 42.15. The time was just a hiar off his season best and lifetime best of 42.10, but he pivked up Silver nonetheless.

Utah picked up its first top 3 finish of the meet, as senior Austin Phillips went another lifetime best, and qualified himself for NCAAs. Furthermore, the Utes picked up a 5th place finish from Liam O’Haimhirgin (42.54), making this their highest performing event of the met. We’ll see those two later on the 400 free relay. Utah has now brought themselves within 10.5 points of USC.

200 BREAST – FINALS:

• Pac-12 Meet Record: Andrew Seliskar – 1:51.30
• Pac-12 Record: Kevin Cordes – 1:48.66
• NCAA Record: Will Licon – 1:47.91

TOP 3 FINISHERS:

1. Andrew Seliskar (Cal) – 1:49.80
2. Reece Whitley (CAL) – 1:50.62
3. David Schlicht (UA) – 1:53.50

Andrew Seliskar and Reece Whitley put on a show in the A final, breaking away from the field in impressive fashion. Both swimmers broke Seliskars meet record of 1:51.30 decisively, but it will be Seliskar who keeps his name on that record. It was a personal best for both swimmers, with Seliskar breaking 1:50 for the first time in his career (previous best 1:50.42), and Whitley going under 1:51 for the first time in his career (1:51.43 previous best). Additionally, Seliskar’s time would have won NCAAs last year, where he came in 2nd.

Carson Sand (Cal) seems to have used the first 100 split of the race as a time trial, tearing to a season best 52.35 on the first half of the race. That time will be sufficient to earn Sand an invitation to the NCAAs, where he scored in both breaststroke events last year. He came in last in the C final with a time of 2:13.42.

200 FLY – FINALS:

• Pac-12 Meet Record: Zheng Quah – 1:40.24
• Pac-12 Record: Zheng Quah – 1:39.29
• NCAA Record: Jack Conger – 1:37.35

TOP 3 FINSISHERS:

1. Zheng Quah (Cal) – 1:39.86
2. Trenton Julian (Cal) – 1:41.74
3. Mike Thomas (Cal) – 1:42.17

Cal posted a 1-2-3 finish here to cap the individual events in what has been a phenomenal meet for them. Zheng Quah broke his own meet record of 1:40.24, taking it under 1:40. It was not a season best for Quah, but his swim was on par with the rest of his meet, where he has been right at his season bests. Trenton Julian came in 2nd, knocking almost exactly 1 second off his season best of 1:42.71. Mike Thomas was 3rd, off his season best of 1:41.29, which would have earned him Silver tonight. We’ll be seeing all three of these swimmers in this event at NCAAs.

400 FREE RELAY – TIMED FINALS:

• Pac-12 Meet Record: CAL – 2:46.54
• Pac-12 Record: CAL – 2:46.54
• NCAA Record: NC STATE– 2:44.31

TOP 3 FINISHERS:

1. CAL – 2:48.80
2. ARIZONA – 2:50.45
3. ARIZONA STATE – 2:50.51

The Cal squad of Michael Jensen, Pawel Sendyk, Ryan Hoffer, and Andrew Seliskar roared home to give Cal the 400 free relay Pac-12 title, and subsequently bring home a dominant performance by Cal in the team battle. Jensen led off in 42.33, followed by splits of 42.30, 42.27, and 41.90 respectively. The fastest split in the field, however, actually belonged to Stanford’s Abrahm DeVine, who posted a speedy 41.86 on the 2nd leg of the 4th place finishing squad (2:51.67). USC came in 6th in this event (2:53.27), notably missing the NCAA ‘B’ cut, meaning they will not be eligible to swim the 400 free relay at NCAAs. The Trojans placed 5th in the 400 free relay at NCAAs last season.