Former USC swimmer Amanda Smith is taking the lead on our Pac-12 women’s championship coverage this week.
The Women’s PAC-12 Championships kicked off tonight in Federal Way, Washington at the Aquatic Center of King County. Only two events took place tonight, and the top four teams are only separated by a few points – Stanford Cardinal 118, Arizona Wildcats 116, USC Trojans 110, and Cal Bears 108.
200 medley relay final
The night started off with the 200 yard medley relay. No records were set in the race, and the top four teams were only separated by a small margin of four-tenths of a second. Arizona came away with the victory, finishing in 1:36.22. The Wildcats, Trojans (1:36.41), Cardinal (1:36.54), and Cal Bears (1:36.62) all came away with NCAA A Standards. USC and Cal were both off their times from mid-season, so it seems as if they may be playing with some different relay orders still.
Cal, at NCAA’s, will need to get a better leg out of their backstroker. Cindy Tran led off here in 24.44, but to win this race next month it will take them probably below a 24.
USC Freshman Kendyl Stewart split an impressive 22.72 butterfly leg on the field. Four women were in the 27-s in the breaststroke, notably one from the Stanford exhibitioned B-relay from Sarah Haase in 27.13, topping her teammate on the A relay. USC’s Kasey Carlson narrowly had her at 27.10. Cal’s Caitlin Leverenz was a 26.88 on her breaststroke for the fastest split of the night and give her team the lead at that point. Arizona’s Margo Geer is hitting her stride, though, and coming through on the anchor leg as she does, with a 21.29 finish. USC and Stanford anchor legs both dipped under the 22 mark as well, while Cal’s Rachael Acker was a 22.2 on their back-end, which dropped them from first-to-fourth.
Women’s 800 free relay
After the break, the meet moved onto the 800 yard freestyle relays. Stanford and Cal both went under the 7-minute barrier, with the Cardinal finishing in 6:57.12 over Cal in 6:58.95. Stanford’s Felicia Lee showed off her freestyle skill with a 1:44.96 leg off leg. Maya Dirado followed her teammate with a 1:43.66 split. Freshman Julia Anderson had a great split of 1:45.34 to distance the Cardinal from the field. Andi Murez closed well in a 1:43.16 on the anchor leg. Great relay by the Cardinal, and if they can keep this momentum into the next month, this should be a top 4 relay at NCAA.
Other great splits from the race came from Cal’s Elizabeth Pelton, 1:43.16 and UCLA’s Junior Ting Quah 1:44.98 lead off leg. USC’s Haley Anderson showed she has some speed, being an Open Water 10K Olympic Silver Medalist with a 1:44 split from the Trojan’s relay.
Good first night from the girls from the PAC-12. Should be a great race for the team title! Tomorrow’s events include the 500 yard freestyle, 200 yard IM, 50 yard freestyle, 1m diving, and 200 yard freestyle relay.
Live meet results available here.
Standings after 1 day
There wasn’t a ton of separation after 1 day of the meet, as there never is. Arizona looks sharper than they normally do at Pac-12’s on day 1, and the Stanford women especially were impressive.
1. Stanford University 118
2. University of Arizona 116
3. University of Southern Califor 110
4. University of CA – Berkeley 108
5. Arizona State University 100
6. University of CA – Los Angeles 96
7. Oregon State 90
8. The University of Utah 46
I think Tran’s timing off a litle this year but Rachel B could go under the 24 second mark and Tran could do fly.
Does anybody have a link to updated results from Prelims today? I can only get the 200 IM results to show up.
Surprised to see Tosky at 4:51 in the 500.
Great point and without diving points the Bears will have an extremely, almost impossible chance of repeating. Expect a great battle for USC and Stanford for the title. With diving points, one of those 2 teams should emerge victorious.
Great point and without diving points the Bears will have an extremely, almost impossible change of repeating. Expect a great battle for USC and Stanford for the title. With diving points, one of those 2 teams should emerge victorious.
It appears lthat Cal has only one diver (Rowell) entered in the meet vs 7 each for SC and Stanford? (is that right?) Don’t know if there is a limitation in how many divers per school are allowed to score – if not, Bears will be ceding nearly 200 points to each of the other two teams in the diving – likely too much to stay close in the team scoring.
It’s not going to happen, but given their splits in 800 relay, would have liked seeing DiRado race Anderson in the 500 Free today.
There’s no limit on divers, though they do count as half a swimmer each.
Both of Stanford’s relays were school records. Pretty impressive for Greg Meehan (and, of course, the swimmers).
Kendyl Stewart is the swimmer to watch on butterfly. She’s just a freshman but she could do serious damages. I hope she will raise the overall level in the 100 fly because for many years now the times stagnate around 51/51.5. I believe she has the talent to break in the next years the legendary NCAA record of 50.01 by the legendary Natalie Coughlin. It’s time for a girl to swim under 50. It would be great.
USC/CAL will have a great meet–no doubt– I still think the biggest surprises will be will with Stanford’s women–they are more confident and consistent–I’m looking for big things at PACs and NCAAs–I think they’ll exceed expectations
Agree with the article. The Bears will need to lower their back leg to a 23 if they expect to hold off Tennessee and USC next month. Whoever anchors for the Bears might not be able to fill the gap that Liv Jensen left but it’s still up to the other 3 girls to get a big enough lead to hold on. Hopefully for the Bears someone can swim the freestyle leg in under 22 seconds by NCAA’s. Tomorrow will tell a lot about how seriously USC and Cal took this meet….these Pac 12 relay times are already slower than last week’s SEC results, if that means anything.
Tran was a 23.5/23.4 at NCAA’s last year. Is there anything to suggest she won’t get there this year? I’m sure she is not fully rested given her 50 point efford from November.
Again, why would she be fully rested? The big meet is in 3 weeks. Pac-12 is just a training meet. Miss Tran will swim much much much faster at the NCAA championships. When it counts. And it’s logical. However, Cal is very slow on their free leg.