2023 MEN’S PAC-12 SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Wednesday, March 1- Saturday, March 5, 2023
- Weyerhauser King County Aquatic Center – Federal Way, WA
- SCY (25 Yards)
- Defending Champions: Cal (5x)
- Championship Central
- Event Schedule
- Diving Results
- Live Stream
- Live Results
- Fan Guide
- Psych Sheets
- Day 1 Finals Recap
- Day 2 Prelims Recap
Thursday morning’s prelims session at the 2023 Men’s Pac-12 Swimming and Diving Championships is in the book, so it’s time to take a look at how the team battle is shaping up. First, let’s look at where the scores stand following the first night of the meet.
TEAM SCORES THRU DAY 1
- USC – 198
- Utah – 146
- Arizona – 131
- ASU – 127
- Stanford – 117
- Cal – 72
The USC Trojans find themselves in first place currently, thanks to their divers, who put up the most points last week. Utah finds themselves in a similar position, having gotten a strong showing out of their divers last week as well.
Arizona State swept the relays last night, landing in fourth overall. Cal finds themselves in last by a considerable gap at the moment, due to a DQ in the 200 medley relay last night. Notably, Stanford is in fifth right now, but would be in third currently if not for their getting DQ’d in the 200 medley relay last night as well.
Now, let’s shift our focus onto what just happened in prelims this morning. Arizona State couldn’t have gotten out to a better start. The Sun Devils were on top of their game this morning, putting four swimmers into the ‘A’ final of all three events. They lead the pack with 16 scoring finalists tonight, 12 of which are ‘A’ finalists, so they have the most swimmers scoring points tonight and the most swimmers in ‘A’ finals.
Cal has the benefit of picking up two more ‘B’ finalists than Arizona State tonight, but they still find themselves behind the eight ball, as they only earned seven ‘A’ finalists, five less than ASU.
Stanford has the most ‘B’ finalists out of anyone, earning eight such swims for tonight, to go along with their four ‘A’ finalists. In all, Cal has 13 swimmers returning to score points tonight, while Stanford has 12.
Arizona picked up five ‘B’ finalists and one ‘A’ finalist, while USC grabbed a ‘B’ finalists in the 200 IM. Utah earned two ‘C’ finalists, but didn’t put anyone in scoring position this morning, so they’ll only add to their score tonight in the 200 free relay.
Here is the up/down data for day two prelims. If you’re unfamiliar with our “up/down” reports, it’s just a way of analyzing team performances based off how many scoring swim/dives they earn in a prelims session. The format is simple: “up” is the first number listed and refers to the number of ‘A’ finalists a team earned in said event, while “down” is the second number, which indicates the number of ‘B’ finalists.
DAY 2 UP/DOWNS
| Team | All | 500 Free | 200 IM | 50 Free |
| Arizona State | 12/4 | 4/2 | 4/2 | 4/0 |
| California | 7/6 | 3/2 | 2/2 | 2/2 |
| Stanford | 4/8 | 1/3 | 2/3 | 1/2 |
| Arizona | 1/5 | 0/1 | 0/1 | 1/3 |
| Southern California | 0/1 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0/1 |
| Utah | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0/0 |
Now let’s take a look at the scored prelims for this morning. Keep in mind this is just a projection. This table shows how many points each team would have scored if this morning’s prelims session had been a timed finals session. The scores from tonight’s final will look different from this because there will be movement in the order of finish compared to this morning. The 200 free relay will also take place tonight, and that isn’t accounted for in the scored prelims table.
DAY 2 SCORED PRELIMS
| Team | Scored Prelims |
| Arizona State | 190 |
| California | 136.5 |
| Stanford | 91 |
| Arizona | 41.5 |
| Southern California | 6 |
| Utah | 0 |
As the table shows, Arizona State is set to take the lead in the team standings tonight, since Utah can’t score any points, USC can only has one ‘B’ finalist to score with, and Arizona is limited in their capacity to score as well. Meanwhile, we should look for Cal to rise in the rankings tonight, though the five-time defending champs will likely be far from first at the end of tonight’s session.
Here’s a look at what the scores would look like if we added the scored prelims into the actual scores through last night. Unsurprisingly, it shows ASU opening up a big lead. In this projection, Cal is moving into second place, but sits over 100 points behind ASU.
DAY 2 SCORED PRELIMS + ACTUAL SCORES THROUGH DAY 1
| Arizona State | 317 |
| California | 208.5 |
| Stanford | 208 |
| Southern California | 204 |
| Arizona | 172.5 |
| Utah | 146 |
Remember when Arizona was relevant? What a time to be alive..
Still waiting for the new Busch era..
It is time – for the bell to toll – Augie has not done a thing to keep this job
ASU locked down the victory early in the meet. Interesting to see if they win 4 of 5 relays (would be a shocker if cal
Didn’t win 200 FR)
ASU has some fast 50 guys, so I would actually be surprised if ASU lost the 200 FRR.
I agree. ASU has 4 guys in the 50 Free A final tonight, and that doesn’t even include Marchand or House. I would expect ASU to win the 200 Free Relay by a comfortable margin.
For reference Dolan has gone 18.9 on a flat start. House, Marchand, and Kulow have all split 18.4. If they hit those times, they would be within striking distance of the US Open record.
Dolan 18.9
House 18.4
Marchand 18.4
Kulow 18.4
Total 1:14.1
US Open record is 1:14.08
Marchand will be on both MDRs and was already on the 800 FRR. I’d guess he’s off the 200 FRR and swims the 400 FRR.
That’s a good point. I guess we’d see either McCusker or Sammon in that spot instead.
This Kulow guy is pretty underrated but maybe not for long
The confluence of events to date has put ASU so far into the driver’s seat, it would be a minor miracle for Cal to pull things from the fire [mixed metaphors, I know’] That said, it will make NCAA D1 Championships all the more unpredictable — and exciting!