Night two of the 2012 Pac-12 Men’s Swimming Championships are in the book, and what immediately jumps out is that there is nobody blowing the roof off with their swims. Arizona was ugly this morning, which resulted in only 5 individual scoring swims this evening. And not just “training through Pac-12’s” slow, but unfocused slow. The swims in the evening were much better, overall, than the morning, so the Wildcat coaching staff handled the situation well.
Stanford is the only team that’s largely shaven for the meet, with only select swimmers seeking cuts from the other teams having lost their hair. Despite having shaved, however, the Cardinal don’t seem to be close to a full-rest. The swimmers where we know there are comparisons from this year to last year have all been a good chunk slower than what they’re presumably capable of. They may be going after the NCAA title this year.
As for the pool, the reviews from those there in person have been pleasantly surprised by the atmosphere. The air quality is reportedly much more comfortable than what this meet is used to in Belmont, and the spectators have a great view of the races.
Men’s 500 Free
Stanford’s Chad La Tourette has had an accomplished collegiate career, and on Saturday will be shooting for a career sweep of men’s Pac 12 Championships in the 1650 free. As evidence that the 500 and the mile are not mutually successful events, it took until this, his senior year, for him to take his first 500 free. La Tourette would win in 4:17.38.
That’s his best time at this conference championship meet since a suit-fueled freshman season. By comparison, he was only 5th in this race last year, and 11th the year before.
USC continued to get an immediate-impact from Cristian Quintero in only his second meet as a college swimmer. He earned runner-up honors in this 500 free in 4:17.83, which will cement his qualification for the NCAA Championships.
Stanford would take three of the top four spots, with David Mosko swimming 3rd in 4:18.00 and Bryan Offutt swimming 4th in 4:18.77.
Cal’s Sam Metz hit a much-needed taper in prelims to drop 12 seconds and make the A-final with a 4:21, though he was off of that time and was 8th in the evening session. Another young Cal swimmer, Will Hamilton, had perhaps the most impressive swim to win the B-Final in 4:17.50: the second-best time overall (though it was only good for 9th-place points).
Arizona recovered from a brutal prelims session in this race to have Pete Stacy and Matt Barber finish first and second in the non-scoring C-Final in matching 4:24’s. They both swam 4:28’s in the morning.
Men’s 200 IM
And with this race, Stanford freshman David Nolan has begun his reign in college swimming. He scored his first Pac-12 title in what seems to be his most revolutionarily-fast race, the 200 IM, in 1:42.52. That’s the 2nd-best time in the country this season, and unofficially the fastest time ever swum by a freshman at the college level.
Nolan dominated all four legs of this race (with only Cal’s Martin Liivamagi able to make up a little bit of ground on the breaststroke leg. But the outcome was only briefly in question (about the first 15 yards or so), as Nolan cruised to a nearly-two-second victory. What’s scarier is that this is about a second slower than Nolan was last year as a high school senior.
Liivamagi would touch 2nd in 1:44.28, followed by another Golden Bear Marcin Tarczynski in 1:45.37. Yet another Stanford freshman (one of three such swimmers to score) Jack Lane took 4th in 1:45.77.
Texas transfer Woody Joye, now swimming for Arizona, was the Wildcats’ top finisher in 1:45.79 for 5th. That’s another mid-season addition that is making a big impact at this meet. He was just ahead of nation-leader Cory Chitwood in 1:45.92.
Men’s 50 Free
This men’s 50 free was across-the-board much slower than it was last year, which owes to both the loss of Nathan Adrian from the field, as well as what seems to be an overall less-rested approach from the majority of the teams in the field. Vlad Morozov, for example, was almost half-a-second faster than when he was chasing Adrian last year. He did take a win in 19.48, though, just ahead of Stanford’s Aaron Wayne in 19.55.
Arizona had their highest finish of the day from Adam Small, who returned to the team at the semester. He touched 3rd in 19.71 – matching his time from last year. Arizona is now left in a potentially-tough position with Small, who is likely their best sprinter. From what we’ve seen from them so far, they probably won’t better their mid-season relays at this meet. Small was .03 faster at a dual in February, but will be teetering on the verge of NCAA qualifying. That would be a huge blow to the Wildcats’ National Title hopes if he doesn’t earn a spot in the meet.
Cal’s Tyler Messerschmidt (19.89) and UC-Santa Barbara’s Chris Peterson was 5th in 19.90.
Stanford junior Andrew Saeta won the B-Final in 19.90. Remember that name. Jeff Daniels won the C-Final in 19.60. Remember that name too.
Men’s 200 Free Relay
This was the best race of the meet so far. Fast-forward to the 150 yard mark, where Stanford, Cal, and USC were all within two-tenths of a second of each other. In 50 yards with a relay start, that’s a sizable gap, but at the same time nothing. What’s better is the names on the anchors: Cal had unknown Italian freshman Fabio Gimondi as their final leg. Stanford had even lesser-known junior Andrew Saeta, riding high on confidence after winning the 50 free B-Final right before. USC had Jeff Daniels, a good sprinter but one who has long been known as well as the younger-brother of lethal Cal relay swimmer Josh.
The three barreled for the wall, with only the keenest eye able to spot the touch among the wake before the scoreboard registered the result. As the dust settled, it was Saeta winning his second-straight race, with a catch-me-off-guard anchor split of 19.26, who pulled his Stanford team to the win in 1:17.92. USC was second in 1:17.96, and Cal was 3rd in 1:18.13.
That’s what happened. Now what did we see that matters. Vlad Morozov had a great USC leadoff in 19.27 – faster than his warmup swim a few minutes earlier. Stanford’s Aaron Wayne wasn’t quite as successful the second time around, with a leadoff of 19.84.
David Nolan swam Stanford’s second leg in a split of 19.34. That’s a very good split for a freshman, but not a “legendary” split.
Cal, despite finishing 3rd, has an extremely bright future. Their relay was made up of three freshman and one sophomore. Shayne Fleming had a good second-leg of 19.19, and Seth Stubblefield was also very good in 19.27.
UCSB finished 4th in 1:18.54. That was slower than their season-best, and will disappointingly leave them thus far without an NCAA invite. Arizona was 5th in 18.73.
Standings
With 1-meter diving tagged on, which was completed last week, here are the scores through two days of competition:
1. Stanford 324.5
2. Cal 257
3. Arizona 181
4. USC 169
5. Utah 114
6. Arizona State 108
7. UC Santa Barbara 107.5
8. Cal Poly 67
Braden,
I really appreciate your very informative and emotionally evocative summaries of swim events. The depth and breadth of your swim knowledge, including the personal features of the swimmers and insight into the thought process of competitors and cosaches, is impressive. Keep up the great work,
I would expect a lot of time trials.