Marchand Picks 200 Breast Over 200 Fly On Day 4 Of Pac-12 Championships (Prelims Scratches)

by Sidney Zacharias 9

March 09th, 2024 College, News, Pac-12

2024 MEN’S PAC-12 CHAMPIONSHIPS

Arizona State’s Leon Marchand will look to win his third straight Pac-12 title in the 2oo breaststroke today, as he opted for that event over doing the 200 fly.

Marchand is the NCAA record holder in the 200 breast with a personal best time of 1:46.91 from last March. Marchand is actually seeded 2nd today behind his teammate David Schlicht, who owns a season best time of 1:51.55 from a midseason invite. Marchand missed most of the invite due to illness, meaning he comes in with a season best of 1:51.71 set at dual meet.

With Marchand out of the 200 fly, the top three entrants are ASU’s Ilya Kharun, Stanford’s Andrei Minakov, and USC’s Krzysztof Chmielewski. Kharun and Minakov are set up for a rematch of the Stanford vs. Arizona State dual meet where they both clocked times of 1:37.93 and 1:38.63, respectively.

This swim will mark Minakov’s first championship meet appearance in the 200 fly. He’s only swam the event five times, with his most recent being his best time of 1:38.61 from Stanford’s dual meet with Cal.

Other notable scratches include Stanford freshman Henry McFadden choosing the 200 butterfly over the 200 backstroke, and Liam Bell from Cal directing his focus on the 100 free instead of the 200 breast.

TEAM SCORES (AFTER DAY THREE)

  1. Arizona State – 725
  2. Stanford – 505.5
  3. Cal – 406
  4. Arizona – 372
  5. USC – 288.5
  6. Utah – 167

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Kings of Leon
4 months ago

He is clearly focused on his Olympic lineup as he should be. While he didn’t swim the 200 IM which is one of his events, he did swim the 400 IM. Maybe justified the 500 because he has an IM race already. Or maybe had other motives for swimming the 500?

Backstrokebro
4 months ago

I thought he would go 2fly, and then 2IM/1brst/2brst at NCAAs :/

Yabo
Reply to  Backstrokebro
4 months ago

I’d rather see him swim 4IM instead of 100br tbh

Facts
Reply to  Yabo
4 months ago

I’d rather see him do the 100 breast since we know what he’s capable of in the IM but haven’t seen anything close to his potential in an individual 100 breast. However it is prob better for him to swim the 400 IM since that’s a main focus for the summer unlike the 100 breast and it’s good to get some reps in especially since he hasn’t swum the 400 IM too much this season

Willswim
4 months ago

When he decided to swim the 500 I was so pumped that he might also go for the 100 br and 200 fl. Assuming this is his final season in the NCAA, and he does his usual lineup at NCAAs, then he left records on the table.

miself
4 months ago

while im slightly disappointed by this were gonna get to see an NCAA record either way with the way ilya is looking

Daddysockwell
4 months ago

Big mistake. Jaek Horner is going to destory him

doe
4 months ago

I wish he had picked 200 fly:(

Bobthebuilderrocks
4 months ago

NOOOOOOOO