Arizona Wins First Ever Pac 12 200 Medley Crown to Begin 2014 Men’s Championship Meet

The swimming portion of the 2014 Pac-12 Men’s Championships begins Wednesday evening in Federal Way, Washington with the 200 medley and 800 free relays in timed-finals format. Not much separation will happen on the first day, but there are a lot of points already awarded through diving last week with the women’s meet, so the scoring should work in Stanford’s favor early on.

Refresh this page as we’ll update the recaps after each event.

Pac-12 Men

• Dates: Wednesday, March 5th – Saturday, March 8th; Prelims 11AM/Finals 6PM (Diving February 26th-March 1st with women’s Pac-12s)
• Location: Federal Way, WA  (Pacific Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: California (results)
• Live Results: Available
• Championship Central

Men’s 200 Medley Relay – TIMED FINAL

A lot of questions were answered very early on in this Pac 12 Men’s Championship meet. The first was around how the Arizona medley would come together. A very veteran relay, despite a little rockiness of late, had no problem pulling things together for a 1:23.50 and a new Pac 12 Championship Record in the event, with the team of Mitchell Friedemann (21.78), Kevin Cordes (23.11), Giles Smith (20.09), and Brad Tandy (18.52).

For Tandy, that’s his first race in the NCAA after finally being declared eligible last week, and he showed why he’s so valuable to Arizona – that split will compete with anybody in the country. Also big was Smith’s 20.09, after he’s missed some action this semester with a reported injury – things seem to be coming together for him. Cordes is already splitting what he went at NCAA’s last year. Friedemann was the only one who was a little bit off on this race was Friedemann on the leadoff, but aside from him this relay was faster than the one that took 3rd at NCAA’s last year.

That time shows both how good Arizona’s medley is with Tandy on board now (their breast/free combo is the best in the country, and it’s not that close) and a change in philosophy perhaps with Rick Demont at the helm – Arizona has never before won the Pac-12 title in that event, and that’s by far the fastest they’ve ever been in it at this meet. It’s only their 6th Pac-12 relay title ever.

Cal took second four-tenths of a second back, and also under the old Meet Record, in 1:23.91. That included a 21.32 leadoff from freshman Ryan Murphy, a 20.10 from senior Tony Cox, and an 18.77 anchor from sophomore Tyler Messerschmidt.

Chuck Katis, a transfer from Harvard at mid-season, showed his impact already with a 23.72 split. While that paled next to Cordes, the best yards breaststroker ever, it’s already almost as good as Cal was getting last year from the now-graduated Trevor Hoyt, and is a split that will put him in the top half of A-final breaststrokers at NCAA’s.

USC took 3rd in 1:25.25, with a 23.87 breaststroke from Sergio Lujan-Rivera, and Stanford was 4th in 1:25.99 with a 21.25 leadoff from junior David Nolan.

UCSB took 5th in 1:27.81, after a big dropoff in time, followed by Arizona State (1:27.92), Utah (1:28.48), and Cal Poly (1:31.95). Utah didn’t use their best swimmer, Nick Soedel, on their relay, though Ken Tiltges did split a nice 19.20 at the end. They instead saved him for the 800 free relay, which ultimately looks like a good decision.

Men’s 800 Free Relay – FINALS

The USC Trojans dominated the men’s 800 free relay and broke the second Meet Record in as many events with a 6:12.54. That’s the second-fastest time in the country this season, behind only the NCAA Record from Michigan.

The relay is even more impressive in that it included two freshman among its four, to go with two seniors. Dylan Carter led off in 1:33.61, followed by Dimitri Colupaev (1:34.16 – senior), Reed Malone (1:32.85 – freshman) and Cristian Quintero (1:31.92 – senior). With Colupaev capable of much faster than that, if everyone else can hold their spots, then this relay could compete with Michigan in a few weeks.

This relay was actually close between USC and Cal through the first three legs, but ultimately the Trojans had their biggest leg on the anchor in Quintero, which Cal’s Will Hamilton (1:34.88) couldn’t match. The Golden Bears took 2nd in 6:16.41, which puts them 5th in the country this year. The Golden Bears’ best split was 1:33.53 from Seth Stubblefield.

Stanford was 3rd in 6:20.58, carried by a 1:32.82 from Nolan on their 2nd leg. Utah took 4th in 6:21.15, with a 1:33.66 from Nick Soedel on their second leg.

At first, the Utes’ strategy to leave Soedel off of the 200 medley relay was a bit murky. He tweaked his shoulder in warmups against USC, so we were wondering if that was a factor. As it turns out, they were using him in the 800 free relay as one of his four relay entries, which in hindsight was a great decision. They not only took 4th, but they hit an NCAA Automatic Qualifying Time and hopped past Arizona. Arizona took 5th in 6:23.93.

UCSB was 6th in 6:27.78, Arizona State was 7th in 6:28.53, and Cal Poly was 8th in 6:36.84.

Time Trials

There was one very impressive time trial swim on Wednesday night, where Cal senior Tony Cox swam a 45.97 in the 100 yard backstroke. Other top times in time trials include a 1:35.81 in the 200 free from USC’s Chad Bobrosky.

Team Scores

We’ve manually tabulated diving, which was completed last week, so these scores won’t match with those you’ll see on the live meet results.

Stanford holds a big cushion thanks to their diving, Arizona is 2nd thanks to that big medley win, and with a balanced USC attack across all five scored events so far (three diving, two relays), the Trojans sit 3rd.

1. Stanford – 208
2. Arizona – 147
3. USC – 137
4. Arizona St. – 135
5. Utah – 114
6. Cal – 89
7. UCSB – 63
8. Cal Poly – 44