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2018 MEN’S PAC-12 SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, February 28 – Saturday, March 3
- Federal Way, WA (Pacific Time Zone)
- Defending Champion: Stanford (2x) (results)
- Live Results
- Live Video
- Championship Central
- NCAA Qualifying
Arizona freshman Brooks Fail didn’t make the Wildcats’ Pac-12 scoring roster, but in a Saturday-evening time trial, he earned a spot on their NCAA Championship roster anyway. Fail, swimming alone, finished in 4:14.82, which ranks him 16th in the country this season. With 28-or-29 usually invited to the men’s meet in each event, that makes him a near-lock for a national championship invite.
The time would have placed Fail 3rd in the 500 free A-Final. Arizona only had two scorers in the 500 free – Brendan Meyer in 8th (4:18.70) and Chris Wieser in 15th (4:23.89).
Arizona finished 4 points behind in-state rivals Arizona State for 4th place in the conference.
Men’s NCAA Championship entries are due on Monday, with final lists coming out on Wednesday (though we’ll have the math broken down on Tuesday, or whenever the pre-selection psych sheets come out). While 28-or-29 usually qualify for the meet, we saw the women’s cut-line come in well-short of where it usually falls, so don’t be surprised if the men’s lists do the same.
Other Noteworthy Time Trial Results:
- Stanford sophomore Benjamin Ho swam a 1:41.13 in a 200 back time trial, which ties him for 25th in the nation – which typically earns an invite. He won the B-Final in the meet in 1:42.69, so his time trial swim jumped him by nearly 40 spots in the national rankings.
- Cal sophomore Carson Sand swam a 52.33 in the 100 breaststroke, which ranks him as the 17th-best in that event in the country. He’s now Cal’s 2nd-best sprint breaststroker this season, 4-tenths behind Connor Hoppe. Breaststroke looked like Cal’s weakest stroke coming into the season, but they’ve now got multi-scorer potential in both distances. Sand, like Ho, won the B-Final of the 100 breaststroke, but his time was only 53.09.
- The Cal breaststroke rise includes Matt Whittle, who swam 1:54.03 in a 200 breaststroke time trial. That ranks him 21st in the country in the event. He finished 5th in the A-Final, with a 1:55.39 (after a 1:54.94 in prelims). He would not have qualified without the time trial, and is now a sure-bet.
- A handful of other swims were put in during the week’s time trials sessions that will be close to qualifying, but are unlikely to earn invites:
- Nick Silverthorn, Cal, 200 breast, 1:54.57 (31st)
- Reid Elliott, Arizona State, 100 back – 46.14 (32nd)
- Matias Oh, Arizona, 200 fly – 1:43.00 (34th)
- Patrick Park, Arizona State, 200 fly – 1:43.36 (44th)
Based on the times and how many tapered (and how many swam through it), why not just move Pac-12 championships to early December, and then have a “last chance time trial meet” in early March?
THats a stub good idea, actually
Nice call, Augie! How’s UVA doing, by the way? Lol!
Very well based on the profound difference in success from last season to this one. Go ahead and educate yourself by checking out the ACC results, they should tell you quite the story 🙂
That was sarcasm. Augie leaving was the best thing that could’ve happened to the Hoos.
Why is Atlanta pro series info in this article?
I am guessing he must have been sick. Either immediately preceding the start of the meet or else once at the meet. Just a guess though. Looking at USA swimming database he was 416, 347 IM, and 14:57 in the mile in December. Find it hard to believe any team in the country leaves that off their conference scoring team. Congrats to him.
He was sick. Didn’t fly in for the meet until later in the week once he was feeling better.
4:14 ain’t bad for coming off sickness then…
I read somewhere that that is how competitive swimming discovered ‘taper’: some lady swimmer was ill in bed for a week before some big international meet but she knocked it out of the park come race day.
Yes, that’s story came from George Haines, the legendary coach. In the early 1960s, Chris von Saltza swimmer broke the American record in the 400 free after she cut down on her training due to illness. She was tapering by resting.
The erroneous idea was that if you needed to keep up hard training, otherwise you got out of shape.
Swim training science came a long way in the 1960s and 1970s. There were gigantic drops in the WRs.
Man… I remember one of my housemates and I were sick with stomach flu the weekend before my senior year conference meet. That was a horrid week of rest and not a good meet for either of us, thankfully I had already qualified for nationals but that was his last shot…
Keep an eye out for that 200 Breast. Silverthorn could be in if Hugo and Mark Szaranek scratch. I feel like Szaranek might stay in it though…
With how strong the 200 fly is this year and how good his SEC 200 breast was, seems like the latter would be the right choice.
It would nice if Nick Silverthorn could make the meet, being a senior captain and all. He would be the 18th swimmer for Cal so there is room. I heard Karl Arvidsson for Cal went 1:54.9 in the time trial, very close and a big drop form his freshman year. I think it is likely that Hugo will not swim the 200 Breast, but Szaranek is a wild card. Fly or Breast? I suppose he is an untapped talent in breast and might want to go for it, given the strong Fly field.
1:41.13 backstroke is a timely swim for Ben Ho, and now the Stanford team will likely have at least 13-14 swimmers. Ho and Dudzinski in the… Read more »
Florida has Switkowski and Rooney in the 200 fly. Szaranek is most likely swimming the 200 breast.
Sorry STAN has 3 breaststrokers, not 2, with cuts, Anderson, Poppe and Pastorek
Younger Liang might be in the mix to make it actually… I think he’s 30th, they took 29 last year and I’m guessing that the 400 IM would be Jan Switkowski’s (who is ranked above him) third choice for Friday behind 100 fly and 200 free. Stanford is going to have a big team at the big show!
that wasn’t so much of a fail i guess
Waka waka waka
“Whoops”