Destin Lasco Won’t Swim Individuals on Monday, Setting Up Day 3 Double

2021 MEN’S  PAC-12 CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Sunday, February 28 – Wednesday, March 3
• Houston, TX (Central Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Cal (3x) (results)
• Prelims: 11:00 AM Central Time (Days 2-4); Finals: 6:00 PM Central Time (Days 1-4)
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• Day 2 Prelims Heat Sheet

Cal freshman Destin Lasco won’t swim an individual event on Monday morning for day 2 of the 2021 Men’s Pac-12 Swimming Championships.

Although he ranks 6th in the conference so far this season in the 50 free, Lasco has opted out of the event individually for Monday. That means a likely double on one of the last two days of the meet, with the most probable outcome being that he swims the 200 free and 100 back on Tuesday before finishing with the 200 back on Wednesday.

He’s the #2 swimmer in the conference this season in the 200 free, and top-ranked swimmer in both backstroke distances.

Lasco swam a 1:33.28 leadoff leg on Cal’s 800 free relay on Sunday, which tied Stanford freshman Luke Maurer as the fastest leadoff leg of the field. He then got a break from the Cal 400 medley relay (the Golden Bears have a ton of backstroke depth). That should help keep him from getting too many swims before the day 3 double.

The only other highly-ranked absence from the heat sheets for day 2’s prelims is Jordan Greenberg of Stanford. His 20.04 in the 50 free ranks him 6th in the Pac-12 this season, and he finished 12th in the event at last year’s championship meet.

That was his only individual scoring event at last year’s meet, to go with a pair of swims on Stanford “A” relays. There’s not another obvious path he’ll take in individual entries, so we’ll have to watch and see if this is a move by Stanford to save him for relays, or if he’s out of the meet.

The Cal men, who are in last place after day 1 of the meet (mostly because of diving), have the top 3 seeds in the 50 free, the top 2 seeds in the 500 free, and the 3-4-5 seeds in the 200 IM on Tuesday.

The session will also see Hugo Gonzalez race his first official events of the meet after a time trial swim on Sunday. Gonzalez could be a difference-maker for Cal come NCAAs.

Another race to watch for is the 500 free, and especially Stanford freshman Preston Forst. He swam a surprise 1:31.68 rolling start leg on the Stanford runner-up 800 free relay, just .16 seconds behind Cal senior Trenton Julian, who is the top seed in the 500.

Forst’s best 200 free coming into the meet was 1:35.02. His best 500 free is a 4:17.32, and he was already within half-a-second of that in a dual meet two weeks ago.

Each race on Monday will include multiple candidates for A finals at the NCAA Championships.