2019 Men’s Pac-12 Championships
- Wednesday, March 6 – Saturday, March 9 (Diving Feb. 27-March 2)
- Federal Way, WA (Pacific Time Zone)
- Defending Champion: Cal (1x) (results)
- Live results (Coming soon)
- Championship Central
- Psych Sheets
The Cal men are looking good to repeat as Pac-12 champions with a loaded team top to bottom. Per the Finis Swimulator, the Golden Bears have ten swimmers who would score 40+ individual points if the meet were to be scored right now based on times done this season. They’re led by Andrew Seliskar, who has been on fire all year after a breakout summer.
Singaporean Zheng Quah is the fastest swimmer in the country this year in the 200 fly and the fastest in the conference in the 100 fly, Pawel Sendyk, Michael Jensen, and Ryan Hoffer spearhead a loaded sprint group, and freshman Reece Whitley is a national title threat in both breaststrokes.
Stanford doesn’t have the depth to take out Cal like they did in 2016 and 2017, but they still boast a strong roster that’s bolstered by freshman Jack LeVant. Brooks Fail and Chatham Dobbs have both been swimming lights out this season which gives Arizona a great chance to move past USC into 3rd, as the Trojans suffered four major losses after last year, particularly Dylan Carter and Santo Condorelli.
SCHEDULE
Wednesday
200 Medley Relay
800 Freestyle Relay
Thursday
500 Freestyle
200 Individual Medley
50 Freestyle
200 Freestyle Relay
Friday
400 Individual Medley
100 Butterfly
200 Freestyle
100 Breaststroke
100 Backstroke
400 Medley Relay
Saturday
1650 Freestyle
200 Backstroke
100 Freestyle
200 Breaststroke
200 Butterfly
400 Freestyle Relay
STARS
Arizona: Chatham Dobbs (senior sprinter), Brooks Fail (sophomore freestyler), Jorge Iga (junior sprint freestyler), Sam Iida (sophomore IMer), Isaac Stump (backstroker/IMer), Brendan Meyer (junior freestyler/flyer) – Despite losing two of their three individual NCAA scorers to graduation in Justin Wright and Nick Thorne, plenty of Wildcats are having standout seasons. Chatham Dobbs ranks inside the top-4 in the conference in four events, including 1st in the 100 back, and Brooks Fail leads the Pac-12 in both distance free events.
Arizona State: Zachary Poti (junior backstroker), Grant House (sophomore freestyler/IMer), Danny Comforti (senior breaststroker), Carter Swift (sophomore sprint freestyler) – The Sun Devils have seen some big senior losses, along with the departure of Cameron Craig from the team. Zachary Poti is ranked 2nd and 3rd in the 100 and 200 back respectively in the conference, and Grant House had a breakout 1:33.3 200 free at the IU Invite, but the team will be in tough to top Arizona like they did last season.
Cal: Andrew Seliskar (senior free/breast/fly/IMer), Zheng Quah (junior backstroker/flyer), Pawel Sendyk (junior sprint free/flyer), Mike Thomas (senior flyer/IMer), Ryan Hoffer (sophomore sprinter), Reece Whitley (freshman breaststroker), Sean Grieshop (sophomore IMer), Trenton Julian (sophomore free/fly/IMer), Bryce Mefford (sophomore freestyler/backstroker), Michael Jensen (junior sprint freestyler), Nick Norman (senior distance freestyler), Daniel Carr (sophomore backstroker) – This Cal lineup is stacked to the brim and shouldn’t have a problem repeating the title they won in 2018. Andrew Seliskar has been swimming on another level this season, and the team essentially has no weaknesses throughout all strokes and distances. If he is cleared to compete, Hugo Gonzalez will also be a big contributor.
Stanford: Abrahm DeVine (senior IMer), Jack LeVant (freshman freestyler/flyer), Alex Liang (sophomore flyer/IMer), True Sweetser (junior distance freestyler), Matt Anderson (senior breaststroker), Patrick Conaton (senior backstroker), James Murphy (junior freestyler), Brennan Pastorek (sophomore breaststroker/IMer), Daniel Roy (freshman breaststroker) – The loss of Grant Shoults to injury is a big one for this group, but they’re well equipped to trudge on without him. Abrahm DeVine has a great shot to sweep his individual events, though he’ll have to take on Seliskar, and Alex Liang, Jack LeVant and True Sweetser all project to put up big points as well.
Southern Cal: Carsten Vissering (senior breaststroker), Nikola Miljenic (sophomore sprint free/flyer), Patrick Mulcare (senior backstroker), Alexei Sancov (freshman freestyler), Victor Johansson (freshman distance freestyler), Alex Valente (senior flyer) – Another team riddled with key losses (Santo Condorelli, Dylan Carter, Robert Glinta, Ralf Tribuntsov), they’re currently projected to finish 100 points back of Arizona for 3rd after finishing over 158 points clear of 4th place ASU last season. Seniors Carsten Vissering and Patrick Mulcare do, however, come in with a great shot at individual titles ranked 1st in the 100 breast and 200 back respectively.
Utah: Daniel McArthur (senior backstroker/IMer), Austin Phillips (senior freestyler), Rodolfo Moreira (sophomore sprint freestyler), Clay Stoddard (sophomore sprint freestyler), David Fridlander (freshman backstroker) – McArthur and Phillips have both had strong seasons and project to put up some big points for the Utes. McArthur should be an ‘A’ finalist in the backstrokes, as should Phillips in the 100 and 200 free.
SHOWDOWNS
200 Free
This conference is loaded with top tier 200 freestylers. Nine men have been sub-1:35 so far this season, led by Andrew Seliskar who dropped a 1:30-point during invite season. It remains to be seen whether or not he’ll swim the event, but it seems very likely considering he hasn’t done the 400 IM at all in 2018-19. Behind him are freshman Jack LeVant and Alexei Sancov, both of whom will be contenders in this event for years to come, and both Grant House of ASU and Jorge Iga of Arizona have been 1:33 this year.
100 Back
The 100 back was so close last year that three men tied for 1st place. All three won’t be there this time, but it still projects to be an insanely close battle. The top four men in the conference this year are separated by just 0.21, led by Chatham Dobbs (45.69) of Arizona, and then Zachary Poti (45.74), Bryce Mefford (45.78), and Patrick Mulcare (45.90). The next two fastest, Daniel Carr and Ryan Dudzinski, were sub-46 last season.
200 IM
The 200 IM will mark the fourth straight battle between seniors Andrew Seliskar and Abrahm DeVine. Seliskar won and DeVine placed third in both 2016 and 2017, but the Cardinal got the win over the Golden Bear last season by nearly seven-tenths in a time 1:41.17. This season Seliskar has been a blistering 1:40.55, just 0.15 off his lifetime best, while DeVine sits 2nd in the conference in 1:42.71.
Behind those two there’s a strong supporting cast led by Seliskar’s Cal teammates Zheng Quah and Mike Thomas, and DeVine’s Stanford teammates Alex Liang and Brennan Pastorek.
SELECTIONS
The Cal men are simply too stacked this year and shouldn’t have a problem defending the title they won last season. Stanford, who won back-to-back titles in 2016 and 2017, don’t have the stars to be able to match up with Cal, but are still a comfortable 2nd. Arizona is looking good to jump up into 3rd after taking 5th last year.
SWIMULATOR PICKS
| California | 799 |
| Stanford | 641.5 |
| Arizona | 485.5 |
| Southern Cali | 385.5 |
| Arizona St | 346 |
| Utah | 281.5 |
SWIMSWAM PICKS
- California
- Stanford
- Arizona
- USC
- Arizona State
- Utah
No live results up yet? When does the meet even start tonight? The Pac-12 does a worse job with information every year it seems. Makes sense when your conference meet doesn’t even have a host I guess.
Agree with the lack of information. Meet starts at 6pm Pacific tonight.
Curious to see the 1650 and how that shapes up
PLEASE keep sleeping on Daniel Roy. In 2022 he’s going to drop a sub 1:50 on all of you.
*2019
How does Cal REALLY get the number of swimmers they have on 9.9 scholarships????
The same way all fully-funded, top-performing men’s programs do: offer academic grants to the rest. That can give 18+ scholarships, easy. Also helps that the have a huge endowment behind them and Olympic legacies.
Thank you for the explanation. Good to know!
Also many swimmers swim at top programs while NOT getting much if any money because they want to go to a great school and swim for their dream team/coach. They know going in they won’t get much money. It’s swimming.
You’re looney if you think Cal is giving academic scholaships/grants to many of their swimmers. Swimmers come for less to be part of the program. Same at the other top schools (Texas, Indiana, NC state etc). There is value in the environment and the families see it.
I see value in going to a tp school like Texas, IU or NCState but Cal????? Come on. There are many great swim schools with less crime and craziness than Cal…Florida, Stanford, Tennessee and Auburn are examples of some.
Sorry but you didn’t list backstroke for Andrew Seliskar and I’m pretty sure he got a mean 200 back.
Yeah, they just need to list him as “Senior Dean Farris Jr.”
Dean Farris wishes he was Seliskar
No argument there.
we discussed once here, Seliskar could A final in a staggering number of events
What events does he NOT A final in. 1650 free and… Diving???
Nah fam, that’s where you’re wrong
David Fridlander is the GOAT
Let’s go Arizona!
off topic.. but where was Jake Sannem for Texas last week? He didn’t swim at Big 12’s and his highest ranked swim is the 24th in the 200 free at 1:33.65.This seems like this swim will be on the bubble.
If he is on the bubble then so is Newkirk and Sam P. Based on their swims they both looked like they didnt rest. Koustik needs a last chance swim to get in. Seems awfully tight to just assume these guys are going to qualify in one of the last spots. Sannem scratched i dont know why. Maybe some of the guys on the 200Fr list will do other events.. Rooney is one so maybe they are really a few slots higher.
Pomajevich, Newkirk and Krueger all look like they’re on the wrong side of the line, to me…
Krueger should be in safely
Krueger is currently ranked 17th in the 100 free. There’s 1 Pac-12 swimmer faster than him so far. Only 5 Pac-12 swimmers all of last season were faster than him in the 100 free (and 3 of them were seniors). So, he’s not quite a ‘stone cold lock,’ but Austinpoolboy is correct – he’s pretty safe.
Collegeswimming.com database looks to have him 22nd… I guess that’s probably safe, but there are at least 3 or 4 guys behind him that seem like a good bet to jump ahead. so I don’tknow if it’s a lock.
No times count until they’re in the NCAA database, so that’s what I based it off of. the CSs.com databasses usually have errors. For example, it looks like all of the Michigan vs. Northwestern dual meet relay splits are showing up as flat-start times.
Use this: https://www.usaswimming.org/utility/landing-pages/times/ncaa-division-i
It’s the one that counts.
There is a last chance meet in Austin this weekend I think. We will see if Jake or Sam or Sam swim
Jake seems to be in a good spot, I’d think: 1:33.65 and currently 23rd. And I agree with TAA in that there might be a couple guys ahead of him that won’t swim the 2free. Jake’s chances look pretty good. Not sure there would be that many Pac12 guys swimming faster to knock him below the cut line.
Sam’s maybe in a more precarious position, with his 2fly sitting at 26th spot in 1:42.33. Without Seli, he’d move up a spot. Could 5 guys not currently ahead of him move past him at Pac12s? Not sure. He might get in by the slimmest of margins, perhaps even at the cut line.
Overall, they both seem to be on… Read more »
Yeah, they have American Short Course Champs meet usually. Sam needs some help, he’s really bubbly. Koustik needs to put up something. Sannem and Newkirk are close but I bet they’ll be fine without dropping.