2014 PAC 12 Championships – 200 FREE – Reported by Jared Anderson
Cristian Quintero stayed on a roll this week, taking the 200 free in 1:32.81. That’s a very strong time, ranking 3rd in the NCAA, and should also put him in the conversation for the NCAA 200 free title with defending champ Joao de Lucca and Michigan’s 800 free relay stunner Michael Wynalda. Depending on how much all three men have left up their sleeves for NCAAs, that 200 free could easily become the race of the meet.
USC took home the 1-2 in the event thanks to Dimitri Colupaev. The senior went 1:33.46 to follow his teammate to the wall – those two were well ahead of the rest of the field.
The next two finishers came from Cal: Trent Williams (1:34.01) and Long Gutierrez (1:34.47). Both are young swimmers (Williams a sophomore, Gutierrez a freshman) which bodes well for Cal in these longer freestyle events moving forward.
Arizona’s Matt Barber also put up a 1:34.90 to be the last swimmer sub-1:35 in the race. USC freshman Reed Malone, who nearly beat out Quintero for the 500 free title Thursday, took sixth in 1:35.17. His teammate Chad Bobrosky finished just .01 behind, and Stanford’s Thomas Stephens wound up 8th.
Another Tom from Stanford won the B final – this one was Tom Kremer, who went 1:34.36 to run away from Cal’s Will Hamilton.