2022 PAC 12 WOMEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, February 23-Saturday, February 26, 2022
- Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center, Federal Way, Washington
- Defending champions: Cal (1x)
- Start Times: 10:30am prelims / 6:00 pm finals (PT)
- Event Schedule
- 2021 Scoring Breakdown
- Championship Central
- Psych Sheets
- Live Results
The psych sheets for the 2022 Pac-12 Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships are the most useful we’ve received yet this season. The majority of athletes are entered only in the number of races they’re allowed to swim, which answers a lot of cursory questions about some of the top names in the country.
For Stanford freshman Regan Smith, she’s stuck to the safe schedule of the 100 fly/100 back double and the 200 fly. That means no 200 backstroke, where she’s the World Record holder in long course, and instead she’ll race the 200 fly, where she was the Olympic silver medalist in Tokyo last summer.
While neither was a bad choice for her, the field of competitors in the 200 fly at a national level is not quite as good as the 200 back. In the 200 back, she’d face Phoebe Bacon, Rhyan White, Isabelle Stadden, and Katharine Berkoff; in the 200 fly, the field is led by Alex Walsh (projected), Olivia Carter, Oliva Bray, and Dakota Luther.
The 200 back is probably going to take close to an NCAA Record to make top three.
She also had options in the 500 free, which she has raced a lot of this season and ranks 9th in the Pac-12 with a 4:43 from her mid-season invite.
Smith is also scheduled to swim a 50 free as an exhibition race in day 2 of the competition. We see athletes without day 2 events do this sometimes to get a warmup swim in – Izzy Ivey last year for Cal for example – because Pac-12 lets swimmers race events in prelims beyond their allotted three scoring swims.
But that doesn’t mean Smith will stick with the 200 fly at NCAAs. Stanford has shown a penchant to switch athletes’ events between conference and national championships in the past.
Among the swimmers who have been a hallmark of those switches is 5th year senior Brooke Forde.
In four prior championship seasons, she has only once had the same entries for Pac-12s and NCAAs: her junior year, where the NCAA Championship meet never actually happened.
Forde’s Entries, by year:
| Pac-12s | NCAAs | |
| Senior | 500 free, 400 IM, 200 free | 500 free, 400 IM, 200 breast |
| Junior | 500 free, 400 IM, 200 breast | 500 free, 400 IM, 200 breast |
| Sophomore | 200 IM, 400 IM, 200 fly | 500 free, 400 IM, 200 fly |
| Freshman | 200 IM, 400 IM, 200 breast | 500 free, 400 IM, 200 breast |
Forde is one of the few swimmers who hasn’t been entered in only her cap individual events at this meet. She has potential swims in the 500 free, 200 IM, 400 IM, 200 free, and 200 breast – which are basically her recent event lists at big meets. The 500 free is marked as an exhibition race, meaning that she can’t score in it if she swims it.
Based solely on Pac-12 scoring (which often doesn’t seem to be a primary driver for event choices at this meet), the 400 IM, which is a common thread for all of her college championships, seems probable. She is seeded two-and-a-half seconds better than the next-best seed.
The 200 breast, which has been a regular race for her, seems more precarious with Kaitlyn Dobler at the top of the pile.
The 200 IM brings a really tough field that includes Torri Huske and Isabel Ivey, as does the 200 free.
After that 400 IM, there’s really no easy answer for Forde – and it’s a bit surprising that she’s opting out of the 500 as a scoring event and the chance to go head-to-head with Emma Nordin, but a top two spot all-but-guaranteed.
Speaking of Torri Huske, Stanford’s other Olympian freshman, she will swim the 200 IM (#1 seed), 100 fly (#1 seed), and 100 free (#1 seed on a short course meters conversion). That means the Cardinal will put their two star freshmen, Huske and Smith, both in the 100 fly.
Huske’s other options were the 50 free (#1 seed) and 200 free (#1 seed).
For the defending Pac-12 Champion Cal women, Izzy Ivey had the biggest decisions to make. She has left herself with four possible options: the 200 IM and 50 free on day 2, the 200 free on day 3, and the 100 free on day 4.
At last year’s Pac-12 Championships, she had no scoring event on day 2: she swam the 50 free in an exhibition in 22.08, won the 100 fly and 100 back on day 3, and then won the 100 free on day 4.
This year, she’ll definitely change from that schedule – she has no 100 back entry (#4 in the conference) or 100 fly entry (#2 in the conference) and has to swim either the 200 IM (#2 seed) or 50 free (#7 seed) for points on day 2 in order to maximize her individual races.
That means no marquee matchup with Smith and Huske in the 100 fly.
Other Noteworthy Event Choices
- Cal freshman Leah Polonsky doesn’t get the same versatility-credit as others in this conference, but there are at least 5 events where she could be an A-Finalist. She will race the 200 IM (#5 seed), 400 IM (#4 seed), and 200 breast (#6 seed). That means no 200 free (#9 in the Pac-12) or 100 breast (#5 in the Pac-12)
- UCLA’s Sam Baron will swim the 200 IM (#11 seed), 100 fly (#8 seed), and 200 fly (#9 seed). That means no 100 breast (#10 in the Pac-12).
- USC’s Calypso Sheridan has only narrowed down her choices to 5. She is entered in the 200 IM (#3 seed), 400 IM (#3 seed), 100 fly (#2 seed), 100 back (#3 seed), and 200 breast (#2 seed). This is her first Pac-12 Championship meet after transferring from Northwestern, but at Big Tens, 200 IM/400 IM/100 back was her regular lineup.
After Kate Douglass and Gretchen Walsh last week, this conference seems so slow in the 50!
I feel like Kira Crage (STAN JR) will have a good 500. She has gone from 5:20+ to 4:57 this season. 4:49 in-coming
I feel like Cal relays are always a surprise on how fast they are without a star studded roster. Yes its hard to beat a team with both Walsh sisters and Douglass or 3 olympians (Stanford) but expect them to challenge relay titles at PAC 12 and NCAA even if there not the favorites now
Has anyone ever won the 200 back/200 fly double at NCAAs?
Yep, though it’s very rare. Teresa Crippen is the best-known example. She made the A final in both races as a sophomore, junior, and senior for Florida.
(And the 400 IM. Holy brutal Batman.)
I believe Beisel also did the same schedule as Crippen during her senior year.
Yeah, Beisel was the one I was thinking of, although she wasn’t as strong SCY as she was LCM. Did Crippen win either of her races? I’m just thinking, if Regan can pull off that double, that is truly Herculean swimming.
Misty Hyman 1998, won both.
Anyone do two 200 stroke and the mile before?
I did that once at an invite (200 breast, 200 fly, mile) with the mile in the afternoon and it did not end well. It would be bold to put all three of your NCAA events on the last day.
I get the feeling smith is swimming 200 fly here but will do the 200 back at NCAA. Can’t see her not swimming her pet event
Or she does the double!
She’ll swim the 200 back/fly double in March and win both. First person to ever accomplish that. She’ll also win the 100 back. She’ll improve upon her American Records in both backs and will likely get it in the fly. She’s only a couple of tenths off of that mark. It’ll be a fun show.
Stanford is in desperate need of a breaststroker
They’ve been using Allie Raab, and she split 27.88 against Cal and was 26.74 last year at NCAAs. While that’s not a Sophie Hansson level split, it was the 6th-best split at NCAAs. That’s not bad.
If they go Ruck on back, Regan on fly, and Torri on free…I don’t think that relay can beat Virginia or NC State, but I think it’s a solid third-place team.
Wouldn’t Regan on Back, Torri on Fly, and Ruck on Free make more sense?
Probably makes more sense on the 4medley, but on the 2medley I kind of think the other way works better? Torri is the only one who really seems to have that drop-dead 50 speed to make up the gap.
But, if we’re taking the Cal results as an indicator, it kind of looks like their plan might be to slough the 2medley, use Regan (who probably won’t crack the free relays) and Raab and fill in the gaps, and then go full-relay on the other four.
Or Forde honestly
I was thinking we might see her on the 400 medley. They haven’t done many 400 medleys in the spring semester, so haven’t tipped their hand yet.
Is it possible that Zoe Bartel is still training, and comes back for Pac 12? She is still listed on Stanfords Roster page, and was included in Senior Day festivites. Just hoping…
Anything is possible, but that’s not going to happen.
She didn’t say – but if it was a medical retirement, which means she’d no longer be eligible to swim.
If they want any chance to complete with the UVA medley relays over the next couple seasons they need to either, hope Raab is really on and stays an extra year, secretly have a stud on the roster they have been hiding, scour the transfer portal for a breaststroker with the academics to get past Stanford admissions (Northwestern is hogging all the smart breaststrokers! 😡), tell Torri to start working on her sprint breaststroke lol, and/or flat out beg Caroline Bricker or another class of 2023 breaststroker to come to Stanford.
Beg to come to Stanford… Never thought I would ever hear that
I don’t think they are desperate for a breaststroker. They have Raab and she is good enough. What they need are some lights out sprinters. A bunch of 22 lows isn’t going to get them very far in march.
good thing Claire is on the way, then…
Does anyone know what’s going on with Isabel Gormley? She’s been on fire in the years past, but has been off form since trials. She hasn’t been able to get any invite times yet, has barley broken 4:50 in the 500, and hasn’t swam her signature events as much as she has in the past. I hope come NCAA’s she does good, but to say something isn’t wrong may be ignoring the elephant in the room.
Her and several other Stanford swimmers.
After watching NCST, UVA, Tennessee, and Alabama swimmers swim so well all year long and continue to improve each year I really have to wonder A) what’s going on in Palo Alto and B) why top end swimmers risk it. I guess that Stanford degree is really tempting.
Winning 3 NCAA team titles over the last 5 years doesn’t seem very problematic to me.
They attract top end talent, that helps. But do they improve while they’re there? A mixed bag. Their showing at the Olympic trials and subsequent Olympic Games seemed to show there is a something going on, especially among the top recruits.
Stanford women had arguably the best Olympic Games in 2016 for college programs (DiRado 2G, 1S, 1B; Manuel 2G, 1S, 2B). Could be off on those totals, but you get the point. Really good World Champs in 2017 and 2019. Before last year they went Top 3 at NCAA’s for 5 or 6 consecutive years.
I don’t get all the Stanford hate. One rough patch after years of success.
USC and Stanford love to tout how many olympians and medalist they have at their schools. Its not really a good measure of how well they coach up the average swimmer. This year’s results could prove this Stanford looks to be headed to a 3rd or 4th place finish with four medalist on their roster.
I believe Stanford swimmers won just as many medals in Tokyo than UVA or any other powerhouse program in the country, so I’m not sure where your thought process is coming from. Maybe not always best times, but they stay making the US Olympic team and collecting medals at the games.
Probably partying. If you are a swimmer you have to choose social life or swim life.
Oh for god’s sake, you don’t know her so don’t judge her.
stanford doesn’t party at all💀 -from a former swimmer who’s “partied” at stanford
the best swimming i did in college game drinking multiple nights a week, the worst swimming i did came while going dry for the entire semester. people truly overrate how much that stuff affects swimmers, its often as mental as shaving. the kids are in college, they have to live a little (within reason)
mayhaps she got on the wrong side of the Stanford Favoritism 🙁
These posts are incredibly frustrating to see because they’re always targeting Stanford and lack any common sense. Sh*t happens in college especially in athletics that affects performance. I’ve had multiple teammates during club and college who broke bones for something unrelated or got sick which led to a tough season or two. People also can have personal and family emergencies that affect performance. If you look at any college team’s roster you’ll see people who don’t perform up to whatever expectations you set on them. UVA may be the hot team right now but I guarantee you can find people on their roster who didn’t go best times or who quit.
^
For a few years, Stanford had one of the best rosters of all time. They were rewriting the record books and winning their events every year.
They may recreate that again but Virginia is the team breaking the records now.
What you are missing is that there are only 20 swimmers on their roster. Its very small for a major program and right now 8 are freshman. After Smith and Huske the other 6 don’t seem to be able to contribute at NCAAs. One might say the other 6 are heading nowhere. Maybe Roghair has some potential but the rest have yet to impress or look to go faster than HS. My theory is that these swimmers take their foot off the gas pedal and do a victory celebration when they get into Stanford. As far as swimming goes they are shutting it down once they get on campus.
Their second level swimmers also don’t seem to have 3… Read more »
I count 21 swimmers and 4 divers, excluding Bartel (who is still listed on the roster).
If you counted on swimcloud Lillie Nordmann is listed twice. And there are actually 9 freshman but 3-4 of them deferred their start I think? Eh it doesn’t matter. My point was that if some ranked swimmer emails Greg and starts their email with “my lifelong dream is to go to Stanford” he should just hit the delete key cause they probably aren’t going to help the swim team.
No, I counted on the roster published on the Stanford women’s swimming website.
But, 20 vs. 21 doesn’t undercut your point. Just counting for the sake of posterity.
I predict Emma Nordin will go under 4:30 at NCAA’s