2018 Men’s Pac-12s Day 1 Recap: Arizona’s Dobbs Pops Off 19.7 Fly Split

2018 MEN’S PAC-12 SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Wednesday, February 28 – Saturday, March 3
• Federal Way, WA (Pacific Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Stanford (2x) (results)
• Live Results
• Live Video
• Championship Central
• NCAA Qualifying

The 2018 Pac-12 Men’s Championships are set to begin tonight in Federal Way, Washington. Tonight, swimmers will line up to race in the 200 medley relay and 800 free relay. Read on for live recaps from tonight’s events.

Though no swimming events have been contested yet, the teams already have some points on the board as the diving events took place last week. Heading into the meet, USC has a slight lead over Stanford and Cal. You can read more about the diving events and see the current team standings here.

MEN’S 200 MEDLEY RELAY:

• Pac-12 Meet Record: 1:22.31, Cal, 2017
• NCAA ‘A’ Cut: 1:24.82

1. GOLD: Cal, 1:23.14
2. SILVER: Arizona, 1:24.32
3. BRONZE: USC, 1:24.43

The Bears got off to a fast start as they dominated the 200 medley relay. Freshman Daniel Carr grabbed the early lead with a 21.16 back split, while Connor Hoppe rolled through the breast leg with the fastest split of the field in 23.10. Justin Lynch came through with a 20.02 fly split. Anchoring was freshman Ryan Hoffer, who put up the only sub-19 of the field in 18.86.

Arizona picked up the silver, highlighted by a strong 19.74 fly split by Chatham Dobbs. With that, he’s now tied as the 5th fastest man ever in a 50 fly relay split. It was also the 7th fastest performance all-time. Dobbs joined up with teammates Thomas Anderson (back- 21.61), Matt Salerno (breast- 23.64), and Chad Idensohn (free- 19.33).

Arizona, USC, and Stanford (1:24.73) were all under the NCAA ‘A’ cut. The Trojans got a 21.30 back split from freshman Robert Glinta and a 23.31 breast split from Carsten Vissering. Santo Condorelli (fly- 20.53) and Ralf Tribuntsov (free- 19.29) finished things off for USC. Stanford’s Ryan Dudzinski (back- 21.86) and Matt Anderson (23.56) took on the front half, handing off to Andrew Liang (fly- 20.03) and Sam Perry (free- 19.29).

MEN’S 800 FREE RELAY:

• Pac-12 Meet Record: 6:12.07, Cal, 2017
• NCAA ‘A’ Cut: 6:20.05

1. GOLD: Cal, 6:13.30
2. SILVER: ASU, 6:16.59
3. BRONZE: Stanford, 6:17.98

The Bears swept the relays tonight, with Andrew Seliskar dropping a seconds from his best time in a 1:32.12 leadoff split. Mike Thomas (1:35.06), Zheng Quah (1:32.31), and Michael Jensen (1:33.81) followed to secure the win. Arizona State had a young relay with a sophomore and 3 freshman. Cameron Craig led them off in 1:32.72, followed by Grant House (1:33.82), Evan Carlson (1:34.42), and Dylan Boyd (1:35.63) as they took the silver.

Stanford had 4 men in the 1:34-range to take the bronze with Abrahm DeVine (1:34.20 leadoff), Liam Egan (1:34.89), James Murphy (1:34.76), and Grant Shoults (1:34.13). USC (6:18.97) wound up 4th, highlighted by a 1:32.45 from Dylan Carter on the 3rd leg.

TEAM SCORES THROUGH DAY 1:

  1. University of Southern Calif      177   2. Univ of California, Berkeley      162
  3. Stanford University               156   4. Arizona State University          134
  5. Utah, University of               125   6. University of Arizona              62