What Will Leon Marchand Swim at the 2023 Pac-12 Championships? (PSYCH SHEET DROP)

2023 MEN’S PAC-12 SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Wednesday, March 1 – Saturday, March 4, 2023
• Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center, Federal Way, WA
• Defending Champions
  • Men: Cal (5x)
• Live Results
• Live Video
• Championship Central
• Fan Guide
• Psych Sheets

Just hours before the 2023 Pac-12 Swimming & Diving Championships begin on Wednesday, SwimSwam has received psych sheets from the conference.

And all of your biggest questions are still unanswered.

Arizona State sophomore Leon Marchand, the best swimmer in the NCAA this season, is entered in 5 individual events, which he’ll have to whittle down to 3 throughout the week, at least for scoring purposes. The Pac-12 lets athletes swim extra races in prelims as exhibition swims, and big-name swimmers often do (like Claire Curzan at the women’s meet last week in the 50 free).

Marchand will be a favorite in any of those five races he swims. He is the top seed in the 500 free (4:07.81) and 200 IM (1:38.89) on day 2, the 400 IM (3:31.84) on day 3, and the 200 breaststroke (1:48.82) and 200 fly (1:39.57) on day 4. That means he’s not swimming, for example, the 100 breaststroke, where he’s also #1 in the conference so far this season, by half-a-second.

The race of that grouping where he would be most-challenged would be the 200 fly, where Cal sophomore Gabriel Jett and Marchand’s senior teammate Alexander Colson are not far off his tail.

He could also have big matchups with Cal junior Destin Lasco in the 200 IM and Cal 5th year Reece Whitley in the 200 breaststroke.

Lasco is the #2 seed in the men’s 200 IM, and is the top seed in the 100 back and 200 back.

There are a few other notable choices that were made. Most of them are not surprises, but there were choices to be made.

• Stanford sophomore Ron Polonsky is entered in the 200 IM, 400 IM, 100 breast, and 200 breast. He swam the 200 IM, 400 IM, and 200 breast last year, though this year he’s the #2 seed in the 100 breast, which could sway his choices. He also ranks 6th in the conference in the 200 free and 500 free this season.
• Stanford’s Andrei Minakov, the defending NCAA Champion in the 100 fly, will swim the 50 free, 100 free, and 100 fly this week. That means no 200 free or 200 fly. His seeds are lower than normal because he didn’t join the team until the spring semester, spending the fall at home in Russia. At last year’s Pac-12 Championships, he won the 100 fly and was 2nd in the 50 free.
• Arizona State’s Grant House will swim the 200 IM, 200 free, and 100 free. The freestyle races are a given for him, though he is 8th in the Pac-12 in the 100 fly this season. That double wasn’t enough to sway him out of the 200 IM, though, where he’s the 4th seed.
• Cal sophomore Evan Petty is not entered in the meet, though he’d be a top-8 seed in the 100 backstroke. He didn’t swim at Pac-12s last year either.
• Arizona State’s two best distance swimmers aren’t entered in the meet. Dylan Gravley (5th seed – 1650 free) and Parker Reynolds (7th seed – 1650 free) are both not entered in the meet.
• Arizona State’s semester pickup Hubert Kos from Hungary has entries in the 200 IM, 400 IM, 100 fly, and 200 backstroke. That means no 200 fly, where he ranks 8th in the conference so far this season.