2022 Women’s Pac-12 Championships: Day 3 Ups/Mids/Downs

2022 PAC 12 WOMEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Wednesday, February 23-Saturday, February 26, 2022
• Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center, Federal Way, Washington
• Defending champions: Cal (1x)
• Start Times: 10:30am prelims / 6:00 pm  finals (PT)
• Event Schedule
• 2021 Scoring Breakdown
• How to Watch
• Championship Central
• Psych Sheets
• Live Results
• Friday Prelims Heat Sheet

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,” “Mids” and “Downs” after each prelims session. “Up” refers to swimmers in the A final, “Mid” to swimmers in the B final and “Down” to swimmers in the C final.

Before getting into the prelim numbers, here’s a look at how the team scores currently stand after Thursday night’s events at Pac-12s:

TEAM SCORES (THRU DAY 2)

1. Stanford, 648.5
2. USC, 549.5
3. Cal, 486.5
4. UCLA, 354.0
5. Arizona, 342.5
6. Utah, 250.0
7. Arizona State, 236.0
8. Washington State, 158.0

Stanford had a strong showing in the pool last night, but really gained ground on their rivals on the boards, scoring 109 points in the women’s 3-meter diving event as they finished Day 2 up by 99 on the USC Trojans. Meanwhile, defending champion Cal, who don’t have any divers, find themselves well back in third.

The Cardinal had another strong prelim session on Friday, putting 11 swimmers into ‘A’ finals and seven more into consols. The team holds the top seed in three of the five events that were contested, including a pair of 1-2 showings in the 100 fly and 100 back.

Freshman Regan Smith sits first in both of those events, while fellow first-year Torri Huske and junior Taylor Ruck sit second in the 100 fly and 100 back, respectively. Lucie Nordmann and Alex Crisera also advanced to the 100 back ‘A’ final to make half of tonight’s championship heat made up of Cardinal swimmers.

In the 400 IM, Stanford’s fifth-year senior Brooke Forde was the top qualifier by more than five seconds, setting her up to take a run at a third-straight title tonight.

Cal followed by putting 10 women ‘up’ and 23 total into second swims tonight, including four through to the ‘A’ final of the 200 free and three in the 400 IM.

Based on this morning’s swimming events, the Bears are projected to move past USC into second in the team race, but the Trojan divers might have something to say about that.

USC had seven swimmers advance through to ‘A’ finals, with two of those being #1 seeds in the form of Laticia Transom (200 free) and Kaitlyn Dobler (100 breast). Isabelle Odgers also sits second in the 100 breast to give the Trojans a 1-2 qualification in that race.

DAY 3 UPS/MIDS/DOWNS

Credit to Andrew Mering for running the numbers.

SCORED PRELIMS

1. Stanford, 425.0
2. Cal, 414.0
3. USC, 282.0
4. UCLA, 213.0
5. Arizona, 178.0
6. Arizona State, 155.0
7. Utah, 80.0
8. Washington State, 63.0

DAY 2 SCORES + PRELIM PROJECTIONS

1. Stanford, 1073.5
2. Cal, 900.5
3. USC, 831.5
4. UCLA, 567.0
5. Arizona, 516.5
6. Arizona State, 391.0
7. Utah, 330.0
8. Washington State, 221.0