2014 Pac 12 Championships – 200 IM Final – Reported Jared Anderson
The 200 IM has already been outrageous this season, with three men already going 1:41s in the conference round. Stanford’s Dave Nolan, the defending NCAA champ in the event, became the fourth tonight, powering away with a 1:41.49 win. His splits were great across the board: 22.0 on fly, 25.3 on back, 29.7 on breast and 24.3 on freestyle. He actually went out a half-second faster than he did at NCAAs last season and also came home faster on the free split. The one split that was a bit off was his backstroke, where he went 24.8 last year. That probably bodes well for Nolan, who can likely push that backstroke split – typically his strongest stroke – more when he needs to.
That time also set a new championships record, erasing the mark set by former Stanford star Austin Staab.
Cal swept the two spots after Nolan. Josh Prenot went 1:43.31 and Will Hamilton 1:43.36 following Nolan in from a distance.
Though Stanford stacked up the A final with 5 swimmers, behind Nolan things didn’t go quite as well. Arizona’s Sam Rowan nipped the Cardinal’s Max Williamson 1:44.40 to 1:44.61 for fourth place, and the rest of the Stanford crew fell into the final three spots of the heat. Gray Umbach was 1:45.09, Tom Kremer 1:45.12 and Will Gunderson 1:45.84.
Cal senior Marcin Tarczynski ran away with the B final with the event’s 4th-fastest time. He went 1:43.70 to win by over a second over Arizona’s Michael Meyer.
