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
- Championship Central
- Psych Sheets
The Cal men got some bad news this week when they learned that game-changer Hugo Gonzalez wouldn’t be eligible for championship season, but that hasn’t hampered their efforts on the opening night of the Pac-12 Championships. Not only did they sweep the day’s 2 relays to open their title defense; they won the 2nd in record-setting fashion.
The team of Zheng Quah, Andrew Seliskar, Trenton Julian, and Mike Thomas combined for a 6:10.94 to break the Pac-12 Championship Record in the event. The old record of 6:12.07 was set at the 2017 championship; last year Cal won in 6:13.30. This is Cal’s 4th-straight win in the 800 free relay, and Seliskar has been a member of them all.
Seliskar split 1:30.37, which just missed the 1:30.22 done by Harvard’s Dean Farris at the Ivy League Championships for claim to fastest rolling-start split in history. Seliskar took silver in the 200 free at last summer’s Pan Pac Championships.
While Cal returned all 4 swimmers from last year’s winning relay, they swapped Trenton Julian in for for Jensen on this year’s relay. While that could have been a gamble, with Jensen’s flat-start lifetime best being faster than Julian’s by nearly a second, Cal had some cushion in this relay, especially with Stanford losing Grant Shoults for the season. Even that, however, wound up not being a factor: the sophomore Julian split 1:33.66, which is faster than the 1:33.81 that Jensen split at last year’s meet.
Full Cal Splits:
- Zheng Quah – 1:33.75
- Andrew Seliskar – 1:30.37
- Trenton Julian – 1:33.66
- Mike Thomas – 1:33.16
Cal’s relay is the 2nd-best in school history. In spite of what’s shown on the results, the Pac-12 Conference Record is the 6:09.56 that Cal did at NCAAs in 2017 (the same year where they broke the conference championship record).
Ready for the Sali, Haas, Farris, Pieroni, Conger, LOCHTE 4×200 WR Gold medal happening in 2020.
And apple
Dean
Scott
Litchfield
Guy
Beating USA
Lol
Hmmmm seem to recall
USA just beating Japan at pan pacs
Usa failed to medal at world short course
Usa getting beat by GB in 2017
Usa getting beat by GB in 2015
2020.. 4×200 streak over, era of Phelps/lochte over.
Technically and ability
Dressel, seliskar, Kieran smith , haas
Would be dangerous.
NCAA season always brings out over ambitious long course times.
Is it out of the realm of feasibility that, if he could enter all of the events, that Andrew Seliskar has the talent to win 200 & 500 freestyle, 200 fly, 200 breast, and both IMs? Just amazing. Can’t wait until NCAAs.
Yet he’s won nothing and this is his senior year.
Been versatile has its advantages, but like jack conger found out winning is increasingly difficult.
I’m rooting for seli but feel he could be the greatest ncaa/high school swimmer to never win a ncaa individual title.
He’ll get the last laugh when he wins Gold in Tokyo in the 200 Free.
Let’s see him make the worlds final before, again, ridiculous expectations are put on athlete who can’t live up to them.
I’d say silver medal on 4x200free will be the pinnacle of his career. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
Seliskar is still a newbie to the 200 free and likely to improve significantly over the next few years simply due to that fact. And as he was 6th in last year’s world rankings — only.58 out of first — it doesn’t seem all that “ridiculous” to consider him among the leading candidates to win a medal — even Gold – in Tokyo. And why do you feel the need to insult the entire U.S. National team.(Silver medal “the pinnacle of his career””)? While it is certainly possible some other country could trap lightning in a bottle and beat the US relay, — as I suspect you could list off prior examples — but an objective view over last year’s… Read more »
Is it weird to anyone else that the fastest 200 in SCY is off of a flat start instead of a relay start? I guess it’s coaches’ decisions to put their fastest guy first and had Haas gone 2nd, 3rd or 4th in the relay, maybe he would’ve gone even faster (did he go first? I forget and too lazy to go back and look). But pretty much every other stroke/distance’s fastest split is off a relay start. Just interesting is all
Breast and Fly are the same way.
Same with 100free
It seems pretty expected to me…1:30 was only broken for the first time last year and one of those times was a relay lead-off. So since the barrier was broken last year there have been zero relay races where all the major players are fully tapered. Even once tapered, there are fewer than half a dozen guys capable of swimming sub-1:30 even with the roll. So to get a faster split you’d need one of those guys to have an awesome swim, not be the lead off, have clean-ish water, and stick to a strategy that will allow for that time (ie not swimming crazy or too conservatively up front based on where other teams are at).
Yeah, he went first I think–in a mid to high 1.30 as I remember.
It’s the same (or very similar) story in the women’s event I think?
Think it’s the same in long course, if I remember rightly the quickest ever split is Biedermann’s 2009 lead off.
Possibly because clean water is a bit more important for 200 free? Over the 100, particularly at elite level, guys might be able to muscle their way through some chop a bit better, whilst in 200 keeping a nice smooth stroke plays a greater role.
Can not wait for the 200 Free at Men’s NCAA this year.
I’d like to point out the fact that Seliskar is 2nd to Farris all time for rolling starts as it should be.