2018 WOMEN’S PAC-12 SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, February 21 – Saturday, February 24
- Federal Way, WA (Pacific Time Zone)
- Defending Champion: Stanford (1x) (results)
- Live Results
- Live Video
- Championship Central
- NCAA Qualifying
- Day 3 Prelims Heat Sheet
Day 3 prelims from the Women’s Pac-12 Championships will feature heats in the 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast and 100 back.
After winning the 500 free last night, Katie Ledecky will swim the 400 IM/200 free double today. She’ll face reigning NCAA champ Ella Eastin in the 400 IM, and then Simone Manuel in the 200 free. Manuel won the 50 free on day 2, while Eastin took 2nd to Ledecky in the 500 free (opting to sit out of the 200 IM).
The 100 fly will feature USC’s Louise Hansson and Cal’s Noemie Thomas, both of whom were in the championship final at NCAAs last season. Meet record holder Janet Hu of Stanford, who was also in that final, has opted to swim the 100 back today over the 100 fly. Conversely, Ally Howe, last year’s 100 back champ and American Record holder, will swim the 100 fly instead of the 100 back.
With Howe out, Kathleen Baker is the big favorite in the 100 back. Last year’s NCAA champion won the 200 IM on day 2. The 100 breast will be headlined by ASU’s Silja Kansakoski and USC’s Riley Scott, who went 1-2 last year.
400 IM Prelims
- Pac-12 Meet Record: 3:57.68, Katie Ledecky (STAN), 2017
- NCAA ‘A’ Standard: 4:04.70
- Katie Ledecky, STAN, 4:00.68
- Ella Eastin, STAN, 4:02.22
- Brooke Forde, STAN, 4:04.27
- Allie Szekely, STAN, 4:05.85
- Sarah Darcel, CAL, 4:06.56
- Leah Stevens, STAN, 4:08.63
- Marlies Ross, ASU, 4:08.94
- Hannah Kukurugya, STAN, 4:09.15
Stanford’s dominance in this event was on full display this morning, as they took six of the eight spots in the A-final including the top-4. Katie Ledecky cruised to the top seed in 4:00.68, with defending NCAA champion Ella Eastin (4:02.22) 2nd, freshman Brooke Forde (4:04.27) 3rd and sophomore Allie Szekely (4:05.85) 4th. The top three were all under the NCAA ‘A’ standard.
Sarah Darcel was the top non-Cardinal in 5th, clocking 4:06.56 for the Golden Bears. Leah Stevens and Hannah Kukurugya were the other two Stanford swimmers getting through in 6th and 8th, while Marlies Ross gives ASU one swimmer in the final.
100 Fly Prelims
- Pac-12 Meet Record: 50.38, Janet Hu (STAN), 2017
- NCAA ‘A’ Standard: 51.19
- Louise Hansson, USC, 50.39
- Noemie Thomas, CAL, 51.01
- Ally Howe, STAN, 51.44
- Katie McLaughlin, CAL, 51.84
- Lindsey Engel, STAN, 52.00
- Maddie Murphy, CAL, 52.37
- Madison Wright, USC, 52.52
- Catherine Sanchez, USC, 52.55
USC’s Louise Hansson posted a quick 50.39 in the 100 fly heats, improving her season best by .02 and missing Janet Hu‘s meet record by .01 to qualify 1st overall. Cal’s Noemie Thomas was a solid 51.01 for 2nd, and Ally Howe of Stanford qualified 3rd in 51.44.
Katie McLaughlin (51.84) and Maddie Murphy (52.37) made it three Bears in the A-final, placing 4th and 6th, and Lindsey Engel (52.00) joins Howe for the Cardinal in 5th. Madison Wright and Catherine Sanchez were both 52.5 for USC to round out the A-finalists.
200 Free Prelims
- Pac-12 Meet Record: 1:40.37, Simone Manuel (STAN), 2017
- NCAA ‘A’ Standard: 1:43.30
- Katie Ledecky, STAN, 1:42.54
- Simone Manuel, STAN, 1:42.59
- Robin Neumann, CAL 1:44.06
- Katie Grover, UCLA, 1:44.68
- Kirsten Jacobsen, UA, 1:44.73
- Lauren Pitzer, STAN, 1:44.77
- Abbey Weitzeil, CAL, 1:44.96
- Katie Drabot, STAN, 1:45.20
The dynamic duo of Katie Ledecky and Simone Manuel cruised to times of 1:42.54 and 1:42.59 in the last two heats of the 200 free, putting them into lanes 4 and 5 in tonight’s final. Lauren Pitzer (1:44.77) and Katie Drabot (1:45.20) qualified 6th and 8th, putting four Stanford swimmers in the A-final.
Robin Neumann of Cal takes the 3rd seed into tonight at 1:44.06, and UCLA’s Katie Grover won the first circle-seeded heat and advances in 4th at 1:44.68. Arizona’s Kirsten Jacobsen (1:44.73) and Cal sprint specialist Abbey Weitzeil (1:44.96) round out the finalists, qualifying 5th and 7th overall.
Katie McLaughlin put up a time of 1:44.42 as an exhibition swim.
100 Breast Prelims
- Pac-12 Meet Record: 58.02, Sarah Haase (STAN), 2016
- NCAA ‘A’ Standard: 58.85
- Silja Kansakoski, ASU, 59.22
- Maggie Aroesty, USC, 59.53
- Kim Williams, STAN, 59.90
- Riley Scott, USC, 59.99
- Grace Zhao, STAN, 1:00.10
- Mallory Korenwinder, UA, 1:00.16
- Ali Harrison, CAL, 1:00.34
- Maija Roses, CAL, 1:00.94
Arizona State’s Silja Kansakoski, the defending champion, posted the top time of the morning in the 100 breast in 59.22. Freshman Maggie Aroesty (59.53) of USC took 2nd, and Stanford’s Kim Williams (59.90) and another Trojan, Riley Scott (59.99) joined them under a minute.
Two more freshman, Grace Zhao (1:00.10) of Stanford and Ali Harrison (1:00.34) of Cal, made it through in 5th and 7th, while Arizona’s Mallory Korenwinder (1:00.16) and Cal’s Maija Roses (1:00.94) round out the A-finalists.
100 Back Prelims
- Pac-12 Meet Record: 49.69, Ally Howe (STAN), 2017
- NCAA ‘A’ Standard: 51.16
- Janet Hu, STAN, 50.36
- Kathleen Baker, CAL, 50.96
- Amy Bilquist, CAL, 51.69
- Hannah Weiss, USC, 51.81
- Keaton Blovad, CAL, 51.90
- Sophie Krivokapic-Zhou, CAL, 53.07
- Emma Schanz, UCLA, 53.10
- Katrina Konopka, UA, 53.18
Stanford’s Janet Hu made a statement in the 100 back prelims, throwing down a time of 50.36 to take over the #2 time in the nation and qualify 1st for the final by six tenths. The woman she passed for that #2 spot, Kathleen Baker, qualified 2nd in 50.96. Both women will look to challenge Ally Howe‘s American Record of 49.69 tonight.
Amy Bilquist, Keaton Blovad and Sophie Krivokapic-Zhou will join their teammate Baker in the final, as the Golden Bears will occupy half of the championship heat. USC’s Hannah Weiss was just over a tenth behind Bilquist for 4th overall in 51.81, and UCLA’s Emma Schanz and Arizona’s Katrina Konopka were both 53.1 to qualify 7th and 8th.
McLaughlin put a 1:44.42 200 free as an exhibition swim right after the 100 fly. I wonder if she will attempt that double at NC’s? Unfortunate for her that 2 out of her 3 best events are back-to-back.
Go Katie Go!
I don’t understand SCY swimming; but I understand Stanford women are ridiculously good. Their roster would be one of the strongest NATIONS at a world champs.
Most of their swimmers specialize in short course besides Manuel and Ledecky though
I take your point, but…
Where would Ledecky & Manuel put them put them on the medals table? Haha
You can add Ella Eastin to that short list. She was basically USA’s #2 last summer for both IMs
She wouldn’t medal though
Specialize? No. They swim both SCY and LCM. And even though it’s SCY season many still train LCM three or four days a week during SCY season.
Have you ever seen Janet Hu or ally Howe swim well in long course or make a huge international team? Stanford swimming all focuses on underwaters and turns. I’m pretty sure Hu didn’t even swim last summer at meets.
Dee – what is there not to understand about SCY? It is a pool set to 25yards = 22.86 meters. The USA (and parts of canada) train/race in them.
The Collegate system in USA trains/race in them..as do all the international swimmers that come overseas for the education and expert coaching.
It has allowed for the USA to become a dominant force in the swimming world via super turns & starts. Caused Bob Bowman and Michael Phelps to essentially revolutionize the sport with the inclusion of the “fifth” stroke, dolphin kicking.
need I go on….
Scy swimming is the best Olympic medal producing factory in the world. What’s not to get?
Based on Stanford’s last two dual meets vs USC and Cal in which Ledecky swam the back-to-back 1,000 and 200 frees, and Ledecky’s today swims of 400 IM followed quickly by the 200 free, it looks like Captain Greg is doing as much as possible to prepare KL for another 1,500 LC final and quick-turnaround 200 LC semifinal at Worlds.
BTW: does anyone have any inkling of the order of events for Tokyo 2020 — especially since the W 1,500, M 800, 400 mixed medley relay have been added.
Interestingly, it looked like last summer she had no problem with the day-of quick turnaround – it was the next day that she seemed to be feeling it.
I’ve seen many top level swimmers at this meen exhibition swims in prelims. Maybe we’ll see KL doing that in the mile tomorrow?
Ella and Katie to battle in the 400 IM. Someone’s going to break the record tonight.
Ella has those extra good turns, and in the 400 IM, there’s so many of them. Katie will be a monster in the free leg.
Katie’s strokes are looking strong too, last year she was 3:07.2 at the 300 in prelims (4:01.9 finish) and 3:05.0 at the 300 in finals (3:57.6 finish). Today she was out 3:05.2 and cruised to a 4:00.6 finish. Eastin has been looking all around solid this year and that 500 yesterday was really good. Will be a great race to watch
Ella will want to be ahead in the breaststroke, and then hold off Katie in the free. It will add a little pressure for Ella to know that she’s going to be chased down.at the end of a long, hard race.
lol I think Ella knows this
Of course she does. It just adds a little drama to the match-up between two great swimmers.
Stanford with 6 Women in the A final of the 4 IM… Wow.
I expect NCAA record, 3:56.54, goes down tonight
I’ll be shocked if Ledecky doesn’t break Katinka’s record tonight. 4:35 to 4:26 last night. 4:00 to 3:55? Doubt it’ll be another 9 second drop tonight..
Not a certainty, sorry. She is not tapered. However, she IS KL after all, too, so I’d be the fist to happily be proved wrong. And Ella is right next go her too.
Sorry for the typos – should read: “Not a certainty, sorry. She is not tapered. However, she IS KL after all, too, so I’d be the first to happily be proved wrong. And Ella is right next to her too.” And then add the following – KL has certainly surprised us before, & hopefully will do it again & again.
Hu skipping her best event in my opinion(100 fly) and Howe skipping her best event 100 back. Interesting.
Eastin swam 500 (very well) instead of 2im. Mixing it up is always good. Remember Katie swam 4im (very well AR) instead of 2 free. Greg knows what his team can do and how to challenge them!
Ledecky is skipping her best event 1650 free too.
Doubt Manuel will skip 100 free— it’s her last PAC-12s ever and she missed most of the regular season.
I think that the best event of Katie Ledecky at this point of her career is 400m/500y. If we are up to see more world records then I would expect them to be at 400 LCM. And it is not because the exceptional endurance and respiratory abilities fade sooner than sprint ones but because the long distance records she set are extremely exceptional even by her standards.
Maybe you missed the news that the most recent record she broke was in the 1650 in November (15:03).
No, I didn’t miss it. And it is the first time (in my opinion) when her record looked like a record meaning that this is the limit of abilities at contemporary level of development in competitive swimming. I do hope as a devoted fan that reserves are not exhausted and she will find these extra 4 seconds to brake historical 15 min barrier. But if it doesn’t happen I won’t be critical about her for that because it is really doesn’t matter if it is 903 or 900 seconds. All these barriers are very artificial just to create extra excitement to those who are on stands and who likes to play numbers.
When I mentioned world records I meant… Read more »
If you looked at long course, Ledecky has at least 3 competitors who are about to break 4 min in the 400 free. I won’t say an event under such a threat is her best event. The next swimmer in the 1500 free was 19 sec away from Ledecky last year. Like 1650 in NCAA, no one is threatening her.
I’m not talking about competitors. Ledecky is a very consistent 3:58 swimmer at 400 (6 times). She was under 8:10 only 3 times, she was under 15:30 three times. So which record do you think she is closer to:
4.56.46 or 8:04.79 or 15: 25.48 ?
The record at 1500 looks relatively closer but it was done three years ago. Back then in Kazan if it wasn’t consideration about following 200 semi-final she was able to challenge 15:20. But three years later who knows how tough it will take to improve the record.
BTW, many great and very great names in swimming were close and very close to break 4 min in 400. It’s never happened. The… Read more »
I said 1650 free is Ledecky best event because her entry time was over a minute faster than the second place swimmer.
I disagree. 3:56 is faaaaast. 8:04 maybe is too much to ask, but she has more in the tank in 1500 and the 200. Also IMs
And Eastin skipped the 2IM. Stanford women hiding something.
If Manuel skip 100 free Drabot skip 200 fly, Stanford women will complete an unmatched feat.
Some of them overperformed at conference last year and added at NCs (Hu and Howe specifically) maybe this has something to do with trying to avoid that?