2023 Women’s Pac-12 Championships
- Wednesday, February 22 – Saturday, February 25, 2023
- Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center, Federal Way, WA
- Defending Champions:
- Women: Stanford (1x)
- Live Results
- Live Video
- Championship Central
- Fan Guide
- Day 1 Recap
Today is the first full day of racing at the 2023 Women’s Pac-12 Championships in Washington. After each winning relay last night, Stanford and Cal are tied for the lead with a 120 points heading into today. This mornings events included the prelims of the 500 free, 200 IM, and 50 free.
The 500 free has four women entered within less than half a second of each other, led by Cal senior Rachel Klinker. Stanford’s Torri Huske scratched the 200 IM in favor of the 50 free, leaving Cal sophomore Leah Polonsky as the top entry for the event. In the 50 free, Huske leads by just a hundredth over her teammate Claire Curzan, who is entered as an exhibition swimmer in the event.
Women’s 500 Freestyle
- NCAA Record: 4:24.06, Katie Ledecky (STAN) – 2017 NCAA Championships
- Pac-12 Record: 4:24.06, Katie Ledecky (STAN) – 2017 NCAA Championships
- Pac-12 Championship Record: 4:25.25, Katie Ledecky (STAN) – 2017
- NCAA ‘A’ Cut: 4:35.76
- 2022 NCAA Invite Time: 4:43.08
Top 8 Qualifiers:
- Ayla Spitz (CAL) – 4:40.93
- Aurora Roghair (STAN) – 4:40.95
- Lindsay Looney (ASU) – 4:41.03
- Mia Motekaitis (CAL) – 4:41.11
- Molly Batchelor (ASU) – 4:41.82
- Morgan Tankersley (STAN) – 4:42.92
- Kayla Wilson (STAN) – 4:43.10
- Natalie Mannion (STAN) – 4:43.48
Cal senior Ayla Spitz swam the fastest time of the morning at 4:40.93. She added less than half a second to her season best time, and is over two seconds off her personal best of 4:38.05 from 2021.
Just two tenths behind her is Stanford sophomore Aurora Roghair, who clocked a personal best time of 4:40.95 this morning. Roghair will be joined by her teammates Morgan Tankersley, Kayla Wilson, and Natalie Mannion in tonight’s A-final. Wilson’s time of 4:43.10 marked a new season best, while Tankersley and Mannion added on their entry times.
Cal’s Mia Motekaitis and Arizona State’s Molly Batchelor both swam best times by a few tenths to qualify in 4th and 5th, respectively. Lindsay Looney from Arizona State also had a solid swim this morning to qualify in 3rd, adding just a few tenths to her personal best and entry time.
Women’s 200 IM
- NCAA Record: 1:50.08, Alex Walsh (UVA) – 2022 NCAA Championships
- Pac-12 Record: 1:50.67, Ella Eastin (STAN) – 2018
- Pac-12 Championship Record: 1:52.37, Katinka Hosszu (USC) – 2012
- NCAA ‘A’ Cut: 1:53.66
- 2022 NCAA Invite Time: 1:56.85
Top 8 Qualifiers:
- Isabelle Stadden (CAL) – 1:56.08
- Isabelle Odgers (USC) – 1:56.41
- Lucy Bell (STAN) – 1:56.47
- Leah Polonsky (CAL) – 1:57.05
- Justina Kozan (USC) – 1:57.56
- Gigi Johnson (STAN) – 1:58.11
- Charlotte Hook (STAN) – 1:58.14
- Ieva Maluka (ASU) – 1:58.31
The 200 IM will likely be a tight race tonight with the top four athletes qualifying for tonight’s final less than a second apart. Cal junior Isabelle Stadden shaved half a second off her entry time to post the fastest time of the morning at 1:56.08. Stadden had the strongest opening half of the race, as she clocked the fastest fly and backstroke splits of the field at 24.70 and 28.04, respectively.
USC senior Isabelle Odgers had a solid swim to qualify in 2nd at 1:56.41. Odgers recorded the quickest 50 breaststroke split of the group by a significant margin with a 32.93. Odgers will be joined by her teammate Justina Kozan in tonight’s A-final, who qualified in 5th with a season best time.
Stanford had another strong showing in this event, led by freshman Lucy Bell. Bell swam a season best time of 1:56.47, putting her in the middle of the pool for tonight’s final. She’s joined by fellow freshmen Gigi Johnson and Charlotte Hook, both of which also swam season best times.
Women’s 50 Freestyle
- NCAA Record: 20.83, Gretchen Walsh (UVA) – 2023 ACC Championships
- Pac-12 Record: 20.90, Abbey Weitzeil (CAL) – 2019
- Pac-12 Championship Record: 21.03, Abbey Weitzeil (CAL) – 2020
- NCAA ‘A’ Cut: 21.66
- 2022 NCAA Invite Time: 22.16
Top 8 Qualifiers:
- Torri Huske (STAN) – 21.67
- Hanna Henderson (USC) – 22.13
- Taylor Ruck (STAN) – 22.17
- Claire Grover (UCLA) – 22.22
- Anicka Delgado (USC) – 22.26
- Stephanie Akakabota (CAL) – 22.33
- Rachel Rhee (UCLA) – 22.38
- Emily Gantriis (CAL)/Amy Tang (STAN) – 22.41
As expected, Torri Huske cruised to the top spot of the morning with a 21.67. She added a tenth to her season best time from November, and is about three tenths off her personal best of 21.39 from March of 2021. Besides Huske, Claire Curzan was the only athlete to break the 22-second barrier this morning. Curzan, who was entered as exhibition for this event, clocked a 21.90.
USC junior Hanna Henderson recorded a new personal best time to take the 2nd spot heading into tonight’s final. Henderson will be joined her teammate Anicka Delgado, who added a few tenths on her entry time to qualify in 5th.
Stanford’s Taylor Ruck and UCLA’s Claire Grover qualified right behind in 3rd and 4th. They are ones to keep an eye on in tonight’s final, as both own sub-22 personal best times.
There is a swim-off required for the final spot in the A-final, with Cal’s Emily Gantriis and Stanford’s Amy Tang tying this morning at 22.41.
Swimswam poll: which WR will Summer McIntosh FIRST break?
a. 400 FR
b. 200 FR
c. 400 IM
d. 200 IM
d. 200 FLY
🙂
Let’s go Cougar’s!!!
PAC 12 needs to find the weightroom or drink some coffee before prelims those 50s were a little slow.
Anyone know the results of the 50 free swim-off?
Tang. 22.17
https://static.pac-12.com/sports/swimming-diving/2023%20Championships/WSWIM_DIVE/Feb%2023%20heat%20sheets.pdf
Scrolling to the bottom for tonight’s heat sheets, looks like Tang won per A final/B final seeding
🤮🤮🤮🤮
Stanford SR Kira Crage (4:59.9) 500… Idky they put someone like her in the 500. She’s clearly a pure sprinter. 22+ 50 free relay split, 49.7 100 free flat start, and 1:47.6 200 free.
It’s not about putting athletes in their “best events”, it’s about putting athletes in the events that are best for the team. Crage had a higher chance at scoring in the 500 than the 50.
looks like she is an exhibition swimmer so that does not factor at all
She’s exhibition so doesn’t score points. So placing higher has nothing to do with it.
Actually that’s not quite right either. It appears, instead, Crage may be swimming 3 events during the last 2 days of the meet.
She was a “Declared False Start” in the 50 and there is an “X” next to her 500 swim meaning it was swum for time, not for scoring, much like Claire Curzan who swam the second fastest 50 this morning (:21.90), but with the “X” next to her name it appears she has chosen to do her 3 swims intended for scoring out of the events on the last two days of the meet.
No it all.
ASU fans seem mighty quiet rn…
Its the womens team. Their 800 relay was good last night.
I think the quiet team is Arizona. One total second swim tonight???? A C final 50 free. What happened to this team? 15 years ago won NCAA, now can’t even final at PAC-12 consistently.
Actually they are doing pretty well. They are not a team of superstars, like Stanford, were not ranked in the top 25 by SwimSwam, unlike Stanford(3), Cal (10), USC(14) and Arizona (25) and predicted to come 5th and is likely to come in 4th at Pac-12s. Coupled with the fact that their heat swims are consistently as fast or faster than their entry times, and have exceeded their seedings in the events and the 800 relay where they were seeded 5th and got on the podium. It seems most are swimming to the best of their ability which is all that you can ask for. But the team spirit is great.
It’s not like they are crushing Stanford, but they are in fact doing well for themselves in terms of time changes and placement changes compared to seeding.
They had 4 relay swims the first night. 3 of the 4 improved on seed, with both their counting squads improving on their seed both in terms of time and place.
200 Medley, improving 0.33 and from 6th to 5th;
4×200 – A squad improved from 5th seed to 3rd place, improving 4.57 seconds on their seed to an NCAA B cut they didn’t have before. Their B squad improved from 13th fastest seed to the 9th fastest time, 6.55 second improved on their seed time.
If you are fair, it had… Read more »
And in Finals improved 13 individual points, 2 relay points and produced a Champion.