2021 Pac-12 Men’s Swimming Championships Day Two Heats: Fail Leads Stacked 500 Field, Seeliger Swims 18.8

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Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

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2021 Pac-12 Men’s Swimming Championships Day Two Heats

Day Two Heats, Houston Texas

Ups, Mids, Downs

  • California 9, 9, 1
  • Stanford 8, 6, 4
  • Arizona 5, 3, 5
  • USC 1, 4, 7
  • Utah 1, 1, 6

The 2021 Pac-12 men’s swimming championships continued Monday from Houston as the teams are swimming in their first championship style format of the season that was flipped, turned upside down thanks to the COVID pandemic. The heats of the 500 free, 200 IM and 50 free are this morning.

500 Free

Arizona’s Brooks Fail is leading a strong field in the heats of the 500 free with a 4:13.81 this morning in Houston. Fail will have lane four in tonight’s final with Cal seniors Trenton Julian (4:14.54) and Zach Yeadon (4:14.59) surrounding him. It should take around a sub-4:10 to win tonight’s final as five of the guys in the field have reached the A-Final at NCAAs in years past. All five of those guys too are seniors and it should be a hell of a race at finals.

Stanford’s Grant Shoults (4:15.48), who has returned this season as a redshirt senior, is seeded fourth ahead of Cal senior Sean Grieshop (4:15.79).

 Event 6  Men 500 Yard Freestyle
==================================================================
         NCAA: N 4:06.32  2/19/2020 Kieran Smith, Florida
       PAC-12: M 4:08.92  2009      Jean Basson, ARIZ
 PAC-12 Champ: P 4:10.67  2017      Grant Shoults, STAN
                 4:11.82  A Standard
                 4:23.34  B Standard
    Name           Year School               Seed    Prelims              
==================================================================
                      === Preliminaries ===                       
 
  1 Fail, Brooks     SR ARIZ              4:15.35    4:13.81 B      
             23.76        49.51 (25.75)
        1:15.20 (25.69)     1:41.38 (26.18)
        2:07.46 (26.08)     2:33.23 (25.77)
        2:58.97 (25.74)     3:24.11 (25.14)
        3:49.09 (24.98)     4:13.81 (24.72)
  2 Julian, Trenton  SR CAL               4:14.08    4:14.54 B      
             23.19        48.62 (25.43)
        1:14.34 (25.72)     1:40.35 (26.01)
        2:06.48 (26.13)     2:32.04 (25.56)
        2:57.66 (25.62)     3:23.35 (25.69)
        3:49.34 (25.99)     4:14.54 (25.20)
  3 Yeadon, Zach     SR CAL               4:14.90    4:14.59 B      
             23.18        48.21 (25.03)
        1:13.68 (25.47)     1:39.52 (25.84)
        2:05.50 (25.98)     2:31.46 (25.96)
        2:57.38 (25.92)     3:23.37 (25.99)
        3:49.24 (25.87)     4:14.59 (25.35)
  4 Shoults, Grant   SR STAN              4:15.74    4:15.48 B      
             22.93        48.19 (25.26)
        1:13.72 (25.53)     1:39.45 (25.73)
        2:05.79 (26.34)     2:31.97 (26.18)
        2:58.20 (26.23)     3:24.37 (26.17)
        3:50.38 (26.01)     4:15.48 (25.10)
  5 Grieshop, Sean   SR CAL               4:23.07    4:15.79 B      
             23.37        48.48 (25.11)
        1:14.10 (25.62)     1:40.23 (26.13)
        2:06.29 (26.06)     2:32.38 (26.09)
        2:58.60 (26.22)     3:24.59 (25.99)
        3:50.47 (25.88)     4:15.79 (25.32)
  6 Forst, Preston   FR STAN              4:17.32    4:16.90 B      
             23.86        49.47 (25.61)
        1:15.38 (25.91)     1:41.30 (25.92)
        2:07.32 (26.02)     2:33.24 (25.92)
        2:59.11 (25.87)     3:24.90 (25.79)
        3:51.11 (26.21)     4:16.90 (25.79)
  7 Mefford, Colby   SO CAL               4:21.17    4:18.62 B      
             23.58        49.34 (25.76)
        1:15.44 (26.10)     1:41.77 (26.33)
        2:07.97 (26.20)     2:34.00 (26.03)
        2:59.77 (25.77)     3:26.00 (26.23)
        3:52.16 (26.16)     4:18.62 (26.46)
  8 Sweetser, True   JR STAN              4:23.53    4:19.43 B      
             24.39        50.69 (26.30)
        1:17.13 (26.44)     1:43.78 (26.65)
        2:10.23 (26.45)     2:36.50 (26.27)
        3:02.43 (25.93)     3:28.09 (25.66)
        3:53.87 (25.78)     4:19.43 (25.56)

200 IM

Cal junior Hugo Gonzalez pulled a 1:41.82 200 IM for the top seed in tonight’s finals as he used a strong back and breast leg to grab lane four. He is leading a trio of Stanford guys with Alex Liang (1:43.24), Jonny Affeld (1:43.42) and Shane Blinkman (1:43.53) as Cal and Stanford each have six A-finalists this morning.

Arizona showed out well this morning with three Wildcats advancing to the final with David Schlicht (1:43.68), Sam Iida (1:43.78) and Ogi Maric (1:44.52) all advancing. Schlicht is stronger in the 400 IM and should vie for the title tomorrow.

Cal’s Daniel Carr (1:44.91) was eighth in prelims and will swim in the A-Final.

 Event 7  Men 200 Yard IM
==================================================================
         NCAA: N 1:38.13  2/15/2018 Caeleb Dressel, Florida
       PAC-12: M 1:38.14  2019      Andrew Seliskar, CAL
 PAC-12 Champ: P 1:40.07  2015      Dave Nolan, STAN
                 1:41.34  A Standard
                 1:46.77  B Standard
    Name           Year School               Seed    Prelims              
==================================================================
                      === Preliminaries ===                       
 
  1 Gonzalez, Hugo   JR CAL               1:46.14    1:41.82 B      
             22.38        47.82 (25.44)
        1:17.15 (29.33)     1:41.82 (24.67)
  2 Liang, Alex      JR STAN              1:46.58    1:43.24 B      
             22.62        48.62 (26.00)
        1:18.47 (29.85)     1:43.24 (24.77)
  3 Affeld, Jonny    FR STAN              1:45.91    1:43.42 B      
             22.29        47.76 (25.47)
        1:17.70 (29.94)     1:43.42 (25.72)
  4 Blinkman, Shane  FR STAN              1:46.89    1:43.53 B      
             23.25        48.78 (25.53)
        1:17.93 (29.15)     1:43.53 (25.60)
  5 Schlicht, David  SO ARIZ              1:42.97    1:43.68 B      
             22.18        47.64 (25.46)
        1:17.62 (29.98)     1:43.68 (26.06)
  6 Iida, Sam        SR ARIZ              1:47.99    1:43.78 B      
             23.05        49.44 (26.39)
        1:18.38 (28.94)     1:43.78 (25.40)
  7 Maric, Ogi       SO ARIZ              1:46.85    1:44.52 B      
             22.47        47.52 (25.05)
        1:18.86 (31.34)     1:44.52 (25.66)
  8 Carr, Daniel     SR CAL               1:44.94    1:44.91 B      
             22.56        47.71 (25.15)
        1:19.27 (31.56)     1:44.91 (25.64)

50 Free

Cal freshman Bjorn Seeliger stormed through the 50 free heats with an 18.88 as the only swimmer to break 19 seconds which puts him in a tie for second nationally with fellow freshman Matt Brownstead at Virginia. In fact, the top three in the nation currently are all freshman as Florida’s Adam Chaney is leading the country with an 18.7.

Defending national champ Ryan Hoffer was a 19.00 in the heats as he is unshaved and should be saving a full rest for NCAAs in 23 days. Fellow Golden Bear Nate Biondi (19.87) made it into the final in eighth.

All five schools will have a representative in the A-Final as Arizona’s Marin Ercegovic (19.45) is seeded third, while USC’s Nikola Miljenic (19.47) is fourth and Utah’s Cooper Deryk is fifth (19.64). Stanford will have Mason Gonzalez (19.74) and Luke Maurer (19.79) in the final.

 Event 8  Men 50 Yard Freestyle
==================================================================
         NCAA: N 17.63  3/22/2018 Caeleb Dressel, Florida
       PAC-12: M 18.58  2019      Ryan Hoffer, CAL
 PAC-12 Champ: P 18.80  2014      Brad Tandy, ARIZ
                 18.96  A Standard
                 19.96  B Standard
    Name           Year School               Seed    Prelims              
==================================================================
                      === Preliminaries ===                       
 
  1 Seeliger, Bjorn  FR CAL                 19.23      18.88 A      
              9.12         18.88 (9.76)
  2 Hoffer, Ryan     SR CAL                 18.97      19.00 B      
              9.17         19.00 (9.83)
  3 Ercegovic, Mari  JR ARIZ                20.03      19.45 B      
              9.43        19.45 (10.02)
  4 Miljenic, Nikol  SR USC                 19.94      19.47 B      
              9.45        19.47 (10.02)
  5 Deryk, Cooper    JR UTAH                20.28      19.64 B      
              9.34        19.64 (10.30)
  6 Gonzalez, Mason  SO STAN                20.31      19.74 B      
              9.58        19.74 (10.16)
  7 Maurer, Luke     FR STAN                20.08      19.79 B      
              9.60        19.79 (10.19)
  8 Biondi, Nate     SR CAL                 19.84      19.87 B      
              9.65        19.87 (10.22)
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momof2fish
momof2fish
3 years ago

go Luke!

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