All 6 Pac-12 Medley Relays Hit “A” Cuts on Day 1; Stanford Breaks School Record

2022 MEN’S PAC-12 CHAMPIONSHIPS

All 6 of the men’s 200 medley “A” relays at the 2022 Pac-12 Swimming & Diving Championships hit NCAA Qualifying Standards on Wednesday evening. After a first week debate about whether the ACC or SEC is the deeper conference, the Pac-12 has just put up their case to stake that claim at the end of the conference championship season.

Among the scoring relays, Arizona was last of 6 teams in 1:24.10. With an NCAA “A” standard of 1:24.22, that assures each Pac-12 school of a relay presence at NCAAs (though many were already qualified via “A” Cuts in other relays).

Pac-12 Standings, Men’s 200 Medley Relay

  1. Stanford – 1:22.74
  2. Arizona State – 1:22.95
  3. Cal – 1:23.26
  4. USC – 1:23.76
  5. Utah – 1:23.87
  6. Arizona – 1:24.10

Stanford and Arizona State already had “A” cuts in the event with mid-season 1:23.98s. The winning time for Stanford of 1:22.74 breaks the school record by four-tenths of a second. The old record of 1:23.14 was set in 2009. The Cardinal haven’t won this relay, since 2007: an event they used to dominate at Pac-12s. The Cardinal won the first 15 Pac-12 titles in the 200 medley relay from 1989 through 2003.

The Stanford program turned a corner this year under 3rd-year head coach Dan Schemmel, including beating Cal in a dual meet heading into Pac-12s, and that momentum has carried over so far into this week’s championship meet.

The 6-for-6 is noteworthy because it is the entirety of the men’s field in the conference, but it’s also more than we saw in any of the other Power 5 Conference Championship meets, where the overwhelming majority of NCAA Championship relay qualifiers come from:

  • 5 in the ACC (Louisville, Virginia Tech, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Notre Dame)
  • 5 in the SEC (Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, Texas A&M)
  • 4 in the Big Ten (Ohio State, Indiana, Michigan, Northwestern)
  • 1 in the Big 12 (Texas)

The winning Stanford relay included a 19.49 butterfly split from freshman Andrei Minakov, which makes him the 2nd-fastest on a 200 medley relay butterfly split in history.

Jack Dolan of Arizona State led the splits on backstroke with a 20.96, while Cal’s Daniel Carr wasn’t far behind at 10.97.

USC’s Trent Pellini, a 5th-year transfer from Purdue, blew the field away on the breaststroke split with a 22.67. Stanford freshman Ron Polonsky was the next-best at 23.40. Cal’s Bjorn Seeliger had the fastest freestyle split in 18.27. He was the runner-up at last year’s NCAA Championship meet in the 50 free, with only his now-graduated teammate Ryan Hoffer placing ahead of him.

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Stirred stupid
2 years ago

ACCs would have had 6 but NCST was a little too aggressive on the exchanges.

iLikePsych
Reply to  Stirred stupid
2 years ago

You could’ve just said NC state was NC state…

RTR
2 years ago

While Trent Pellini’s split of 22.6 makes him the front runner in the 100 breaststroke showdown on Friday, I’ve seen Liam Bell back half that race incredibly fast! Can’t wait to watch!

Bobo Gigi
2 years ago

Pretty good 1.32 low anchor leg for Destin Lasco. And I’m pretty sure he’s very little rested.
Smart. Peak when it matters.

Bobo Gigi
2 years ago

Léon Marchand 1.31 low anchor leg! The guy who wants to beat him in Paris in the 400 IM will have to be very very very strong. I see only Carson Foster able to challenge him.

B1Guy!
2 years ago

Ron Polonsky has entered the chat! Nice start to Freshman Pac12s 23.4 breast an a 1:31.5 free 👏

Negative Nora (they/them)
2 years ago

Sad to see how backwards Arizona has gone over the past decade.

mds
Reply to  Negative Nora (they/them)
2 years ago

Nora – You picked a funny time to make this comment. While they certainly don’t have the same horses as back in the 2007-2011 era (very few do), the younger Coach Busch has them roaring back from their slide, with swimmers who were significantly less accomplished athletes going in, at least in this meet. They made “A” cuts on both relays last night with athletes who came in rated well back in the pre-conference rankings: in the Medley: 10th in 50 Back, 7th in 100 Breast, 28th in 100 Fly and 18th in 50 Free. And in the 4×200 they came in with pre-conference ratings in the 200 free of 6th, 11th, 24th and 41st. To get two NCAA “A”… Read more »

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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