2022 Men’s Pac-12 Championships: Day 3 Ups/Downs

2022 MEN’S PAC-12 CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Wednesday, March 2-Saturday, March 5, 2022
• Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center, Federal Way, Washington
• Defending champions: Cal (4x)
• Start times: 11:00 am prelims / 6:00 pm finals (PST)
• Event Schedule
• Diving Results
• Championship Central
• Live Results
• Live Stream

For those unfamiliar with swimming terminology, the concept of “Ups” and “Downs” is a good way to track which teams performed best at prelims. In prelims, swimmers qualify for one of three finals heats: the top 8 finishers make the A final, places 9 through 16 the B final and places 17 through 24 the C final. In finals, swimmers are locked into their respective final, meaning a swimmer in the B heat (spots 9-16) can only place as high as 9th or as low as 16th, even if they put up the fastest or slowest time of any heat in the final.

With that in mind, we’ll be tracking “Ups,” “Mids” and “Downs” after each prelims session. “Up” refers to swimmers in the A final, “Mid” to swimmers in the B final and “Down” to swimmers in the C final.

Note: Pac-12 only scores the ‘A’ and ‘B’ finals, so we won’t be tracking ‘C’ finals.

Before getting into the prelim numbers, here’s a look at how the team scores currently stand.

Team Scores After Day 2:

1. Stanford, 363.5
2. Arizona State, 261.5
3. University of Arizona, 233.5
4. California, 221.5
5. University of Southern California, 209
6. University of Utah, 183

During Thursday night’s finals session, Cal was able to move up from 6th to 4th, but the team will still be playing catch-up to crack the top-three tonight. Cal will have 13 A-finalists tonight and 22 swims overall, which is the most out of all teams. Stanford will have 10 swimmers in A-finals and 17 swims overall, which will keep the Cardinal’s momentum rolling.

The Golden Bears had a great showing in the 400 IM, placing four swimmers into the A-final and two in the B-final. Stanford quickly responded by getting four Cardinal into the A-final in the following event, the 100 butterfly. Cal will have a swimmer in every race tonight, which will surely raise them in the team rankings. It’s expected that Cal will pass Arizona and Arizona State to wind up in 2nd place after tonight’s finals session.

Based on the projected scoring, Cal will be behind Stanford by 54 points, which is a manageable margin for the Golden Bears to close on the final day of competition. 

Arizona State’s big event tonight will be the 200 freestyle where they will have five Sun Devils competing among the two finals heats (3 up/2 down). More than half of University of Southern California’s finals swims will come from the 100 breaststroke where they have five swimmers (3 up/2 down).

University of Arizona will have 10 representatives in B-finals tonight, which is the most of any other team. The Wildcats will also have three swimmers in A-finals. Utah’s lone A-final swim will come in the 100 backstroke, but will have five swimmers in B-finals. 

NOTE: This article was calculated and completed prior to Bryce Mefford receiving a re-swim in the 100 backstroke, which placed him into the A-final. The Golden Bears will now have four representatives in the A-final, USC will have one swimmer in the B-final, and Arizona will have two swimmers in the B-final. 

Day 3 Ups/Downs

Credit to Andrew Mering for running the numbers.

Scored Prelims

Scored Prelims + Actual Team Scores