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)
- Championship Central
- Live Results
- Live Stream
Cal freshman Bjorn Seeliger continued his white-hot conference championship debut on Tuesday night in Houston, anchoring the Bears to victory in the 200 medley relay with the fastest 50 free split of the season thus far.
The Swedish native threw down a scintillating 18.38 split, which by all accounts is the first under 18.4 this season. Two others that have been sub-18.5 in 2020-21 are Ohio State’s Sem Andreis (18.43) and Virginia’s Matt Brownstead (18.45).
Seeliger came into the meet with a flat-start best of 19.23, and then broke 19 seconds twice in the individual event on Monday, clocking 18.88 in the heats before going 18.84 in the final. That placed him second to teammate Ryan Hoffer (18.81), and put him third in the nation overall behind fellow first-year Adam Chaney (18.76) and Hoffer.
Later that night, Seeliger (18.66) and Hoffer (18.55) helped Cal to victory in the 200 free relay, swimming second and third.
Seeliger also had a standout 41.21 anchor leg on the 400 medley relay, and swam his first-ever 200 yard free in this morning’s prelims, going 1:35.82 to take 12th before scratching the final.
The 21-year-old will be one to watch out for on Day 4, where he’ll challenge Hoffer for the conference title in the 100 free and feature prominently on Cal’s 400 free relay.
200 MEDLEY RELAY SPLITS
In addition to Seeliger’s anchor leg, there were some other notable splits from the 200 medley relay at Pac-12s tonight, including two sub-20 fly splits from Utah’s Cooper DeRyk and Hoffer.
DeRyk split 19.85, helping lead Utah to a school record and second-place finish, and Hoffer was 19.87.
Those two splits are among a handful of sub-20 fly legs this season, which includes Pittsburgh’s Blaise Vera (19.68), Georgia’s Camden Murphy (19.77), and Michigan’s River Wright (19.88).
Another Ute, Andrew Britton, out-split Reece Whitley (23.38) on breast in 23.28, as did Ryan Foote (23.37) from Arizona’s ‘B’ team.
Back Lead-offs
| Swimmer | School | Split |
| Daniel Carr | Cal | 21.11 |
| Ogi Maric | Arizona | 21.72 |
| Andrei Ungur | Utah | 21.89 |
| Shane Blinkman | Stanford ‘B’ | 21.96 |
| Jonny Affeld | Stanford | 22.10 |
| Jack Kirby | USC | 22.25 |
| Jack Anderson | Arizona ‘B’ | 22.25 |
| Isaac Stump | Arizona ‘C’ | 22.62 |
Breast Splits
| Swimmer | School | Split |
| Andrew Britton | Utah | 23.28 |
| Ryan Foote | Arizona ‘B’ | 23.37 |
| Reece Whitley | Cal | 23.38 |
| Sam Iida | Arizona | 23.52 |
| Mario Koenigsperger | USC | 23.80 |
| Daniel Roy | Stanford | 23.97 |
| Ty Wells | Arizona ‘C’ | 24.31 |
| Ethan Dang | Stanford ‘B’ | 24.47 |
Fly Splits
| Swimmer | School | Split |
| Cooper DeRyk | Utah | 19.85 |
| Ryan Hoffer | Cal | 19.87 |
| Alexei Sancov | USC | 20.28 |
| Noah Reid | Arizona | 20.45 |
| Ethan Hu | Stanford | 20.59 |
| Brooks Taner | Arizona ‘B’ | 20.94 |
| Aldan Johnston | Arizona ‘C’ | 21.50 |
| William Tarvestad | Stanford ‘B’ | 21.93 |
Free Splits
| Swimmer | School | Split |
| Bjorn Seeliger | Cal | 18.38 |
| Maric Ercegovic | Arizona | 18.95 |
| Tai Combs | Arizona ‘B’ | 19.15 |
| Finn O’Haimhirgin | Utah | 19.21 |
| Mason Gonzalez | Stanford | 19.22 |
| Nikola Miljenic | USC | 19.29 |
| Swum Gwiazdowski | Arizona ‘C’ | 19.74 |
| Neel Roy | Stanford ‘B’ | 21.88 |
TEAM SCORES (THRU DAY 3 + DIVING)
- Cal, 640
- Stanford, 551
- Arizona, 466
- Utah, 347
- USC, 304
I’m pretty sure David Herbert of VA Tech split a 17.88 at ACC’s during the 200 free relay, think that might be the fastest 50 free split of this season. Nonetheless, great split Bjorn!!
No, that was a timing issue. It also showed his reaction time as -0.87 and the swimmer before him splitting like 20.3. One of the SwimSwam writers hand timed it from video and showed it was around a 19.0 split.
nothing like a 21 year old freshman to hammer out the big times,,,i turned 21 my senior year of college
nothing like commenting on swimswam with nonsense.
Go look at Bjorn’s eloquent response to this on another post. And also…stop trying to tear someone down for swimming well.
Agreed! His info on the structure of high school in Sweden along with NCAA rules was very insightful.
Dude swam the fastest split in the country so far this year. Leave it to a carrot to try and downplay his achievements.
Did you split 18.38 as a senior then?
If Cal is up at the 100 in the 2 medley relay at NCs, it’s over.
Utah with the fastest BR and FL splits and Reece Whitley out-split by Ryan Foote from Arizona’s B relay. This meet may have forgotten to take its medicine and I love it.
Bjorn Free!
I just wanted to use that before someone else did.
Well played @BearlyBreathing…walk out song at NCAAs?