Southern California’s Fast 800 Free Relay Highlights Opening Night Of Men’s Pac 12 Championships

Cristian Quintero Reed Malone Dylan Carter southern california 800 free relay
Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

FEDERAL WAY – The opening night of the Pac 12 men’s swimming championships featured the reigning NCAA champions in the 200 medley relay and 800 freestyle relay posting some quick winning times on their road to title defenses.

First up was the 200 medley relay, and two of the members of last year’s relay that won the NCAA title and set the American record with a 1:22.83 helped California hold off Southern California tonight with a 1:24.16. Ryan Murphy (backstroke: 21.21) and Chuck Katis (breaststroke: 23.67) were part of that winning foursome, and they were joined by Justin Lynch (butterfly: 20.32) and Tyler Messerschmidt (freestyle: 18.96) to post a 1:24.16 tonight. That’s just one hundredth of a second slower than the same four posted at the Georgia Invitational last fall, so the Bears still stand fifth in the national rankings.

Southern California’s team of Luca Spinazzola (backstroke: 21.21), Morten Klarskov (breaststroke: 24.08), Dylan Carter (butterfly: 20.21) and Santo Condorelli (freestyle: 18.89) vaulted up the national standings with a runner-up time of 1:24.39. Previously, the Trojans were 23rd in the country this season with a 1:26.12 but now sit sixth.

The event almost featured automatic qualifying times for all six teams. Stanford (1:25.13), Arizona (1:25.17) and Arizona State (1:25.72) will get to swim the event in Iowa City later this month. Utah finished in a tie for seventh with Cal’s B team with a 1:27.18, just off the “B” cut of 1:27.14. Squeezed in the top times was Southern California’s “B” team that placed fifth overall with a 1:25.18. Because only one team per school can swim in a relay at the NCAA championships, and only one team per school can score in relays at the conference meet, the USC “B” team swam exhibition.

The 800 freestyle relay wrapped up the first night of racing with Southern California dominating the competition with a 6:12.51, the second-fastest time in the nation behind Michigan’s 6:12.20 from last week’s Big 10 championships – and faster than the 6:13.09 the Trojans swam last year to win the NCAA title. Three of the members of that national-title relay competed tonight: Dylan Carter (1:33.55), Reed Malone (1:32.86) and Cristian Quintero (1:31.65) were joined by Michael Domagala (1:34.45) to win by more than two seconds. Malone provided the key leg tonight, swimming 1.4 seconds faster tonight than he did at the NCAAs. It should be noted that the 800 free relay at the NCAA championships is swum at the end of the second day of competition, not on a relay-only day.

Stanford finished comfortably in second with a 6:14.98, good for fourth in the nation. California posted the only other “A” qualifying time in the race with a 6:19.30 for third. Utah (6:23.80), Arizona (6:27.00) and Arizona State (6:30.53) rounded out the top six. Utah will have to wait to see if their 19th-ranked time will be invited to swim at the NCAA championships.

Team Scores After Day 1
Southern California: 74
California: 72
Stanford: 66
Arizona: 58
Utah: 56
Arizona State: 54

2015 Men’s Pac 12 Championships: Day One – Results

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Hope Hayward
9 years ago

Dylan Carter I’ve never been more proud

Sarah Hassan
9 years ago

Luvly

Scott O'Connor
9 years ago

Looks to be a very fast meet. Amazing talents.

Mike Murray
9 years ago

Quintero….legit split

Tracy
Tracy
9 years ago

Let’s GO Trojans!!! Fight on!!!

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