2022 Pac-12 Men’s Championships: ASU Freshman Leon Marchand Blasts 1:39 200 IM

Arizona State's Grant House; Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

2022 Pac-12 Men’s Championships: Leon Marchand Blasts 1:39 200 IM to win

Leon Marchand’s first college postseason experience is going quite well at the 2022 Pac-12 Men’s Championships.

Marchand defended his top seed in the 200 individual medley with aplomb, clocking in at 1:39.65. That’s a Pac-12 Championships record, chipping nearly a half-second off the record set in 2015 by Stanford’s David Nolan. It also booked a 1-2 finish for Arizona State, with Grant House, as the Sun Devils are making a podium charge through two days of the four-day meet.

The full results from the second evening session:

2022 Pac-12 Men’s Championships Links

2022 Pac-12 Men’s Championships Team Scores

                      Men - Team Rankings - Through Event 9                       
 
  1. Stanford University             363.5   2. Arizona State University        261.5
  3. University of Arizona           233.5   4. California University,Berkeley  221.5
  5. Southern California, Universit    209   6. Utah, University of               183

500 freestyle

Stanford’s Preston Forst pulled a moderate upset, going 4:12.06 to edge Brooks Fail by .08 in a sensational race. Forst built out an early lead, with Fail, who had the top seed entering the morning with a 4:10, stalking him the whole way. Forst came back in 50.29 for the final 100, with Fail in 48.61. But the cushion was too large to pull back.

Grant Shoults was third in 4:13.87 for Stanford. All the times were shy of the NCAA A standard, which Fail already holds.

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 4:09.49  2021      Trenton Julian, CAL
                 4:11.62  A Standard
                 4:23.34  B Standard
    Name           Year School            Prelims     Finals       Points 
=========================================================================
                            === A - Final ===                            
 
  1 Forst, Preston   SO STAN              4:13.83    4:12.06 B       20  
     r:+0.52  23.37    24.93    25.48    25.81
       25.72    25.56    25.50    25.40
       25.19    25.10                  
  2 Fail, Brooks     5Y Arizona           4:14.83    4:12.14 B       17  
     r:+0.70  23.17    25.20    25.77    26.13
       26.19    26.05    25.61    25.41
       24.45    24.16                  
  3 Shoults, Grant   SR STAN              4:15.51    4:13.87 B       16  
     r:+0.63  22.97    25.35    25.92    25.99
       25.98    25.66    25.70    25.59
       25.38    25.33                  
  4 Gray, Andrew     JR ASU               4:15.64    4:14.51 B       15  
     r:+0.70  22.87    25.78    25.56    25.60
       26.02    26.20    25.78    25.82
       25.71    25.17                  
  5 Matheson, Danie  FR USC               4:15.77    4:14.87 B       14  
     r:+0.65  23.52    25.46    25.77    25.94
       25.98    26.13    25.67    25.79
       25.64    24.97                  
  6 Grieshop, Sean   SR CAL               4:15.73    4:15.21 B       13  
     r:+0.64  23.25    25.32    25.79    26.06
       26.12    25.97    25.86    25.74
       25.70    25.40                  
  7 Johansson, Vict  SR USC               4:15.34    4:16.97 B       12  
     r:+0.64  23.99    25.46    25.71    25.98
       26.12    26.06    26.25    26.18
       26.03    25.19                  
  8 Matejka, Andrew  JR STAN              4:15.39    4:18.31 B       11  
     r:+0.75  23.44    25.42    26.13    26.21
       26.14    26.52    26.80    26.18
       26.12    25.35

200 individual medley

Leon Marchand set the pace in the morning by nearly a second and stretched that margin at night. He was second to teammate Grant House after the opening butterfly leg but took the lead for good by going 24.89 in backstroke. The French Olympian brought it home in 23.80 to take a moderate lead and balloon it out to 1.01 seconds over House, who went 1:40.66. The times are the fastest and second-fastest in program history.

Stanford’s Ron Polonsky used a 28.63 breaststroke leg to get an A cut in 1:40.71. Destin Lasco of Cal was fourth.

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            Prelims     Finals       Points 
=========================================================================
                            === A - Final ===                            
 
  1 Marchand, Leon   FR ASU               1:40.90    1:39.65PA       20  
     r:+0.55  22.05    24.89    28.91    23.80
  2 House, Grant     SR ASU               1:41.74    1:40.66 A       17  
     r:+0.62  21.43    25.33    29.50    24.40
  3 Polonsky, Ron    FR STAN              1:41.95    1:40.71 A       16  
     r:+0.64  22.40    25.07    28.63    24.61
  4 Lasco, Destin    SO CAL               1:42.07    1:41.70 B       15  
     r:+0.65  22.22    25.83    29.37    24.28
  5 Louser, Jason    JR CAL               1:42.19    1:41.76 B       14  
     r:+0.69  22.54    26.30    28.28    24.64
  6 Affeld, Jonny    SO STAN              1:42.52    1:42.56 B       13  
     r:+0.65  22.62    25.81    29.46    24.67
  7 Gonzalez, Hugo   SR CAL               1:42.04    1:43.14 B       12  
     r:+0.63  22.33    25.54    29.63    25.64
  8 Mihm, Rick       SO STAN              1:43.13    1:43.73 B       11  
     r:+0.53  22.99    26.02    30.10    24.62

50 freestyle

After a stellar morning swim of 18.86, Bjorn Seeliger matched it at night, the Cal sophomore going 18.84 to win the 50. It’s the lone A cut of the event, and it threatened the Pac-12 Championships record set in 2014 by Arizona’s Brad Tandy at 18.80.

Stanford freshman Andrei Minakov was second in 19.08, edging out the ASU duo of Jack Dolan (19.13) and Cody Bybee (19.17).

 Event 8  Men 50 Yard Freestyle
=========================================================================
         NCAA: N 17.63  3/22/2018 Caeleb Dressel, Florida
       PAC-12: M 18.33  2021      Ryan Hoffer, CAL
 PAC-12 Champ: P 18.80  2014      Brad Tandy, ARIZ
                 18.96  A Standard
                 19.96  B Standard
    Name           Year School            Prelims     Finals       Points 
=========================================================================
                            === A - Final ===                            
 
  1 Seeliger, Bjorn  SO CAL                 18.86      18.84 A       20  
      r:+0.53  9.00     9.84                  
  2 Minakov, Andrei  FR STAN                19.24      19.08 B       17  
      r:+0.61  9.16     9.92                  
  3 Dolan, Jack      JR ASU                 19.33      19.13 B       16  
      r:+0.63  9.19     9.94                  
  4 Bybee, Cody      SR ASU                 19.37      19.17 B       15  
      r:+0.59  9.16    10.01                  
  5 Ercegovic, Mari  SR Arizona             19.42      19.32 B       14  
      r:+0.67  9.22    10.10                  
  6 Alexy, Jack      FR CAL                 19.47      19.35 B       13  
      r:+0.72  9.41     9.94                  
  7 Combs, Tai       SR Arizona             19.51      19.42 B       12  
      r:+0.56  9.33    10.09                  
  8 Selin, Artem     FR USC                 19.45      19.54 B       11  
      r:+0.67  9.30    10.24

200 freestyle relay

Bjorn Seeliger, it seemed, had more left to give. After winning the 50, he had a higher gear to turn to, going 18.73 off the front of the 200 free relay. That allowed the Cal foursome – with Jack Alexy, Daniel Carr and Marcos Rico Peng – to go 1:15.00, an NCAA A cut and the Pac-12 Championships record. It obliterates by a half-second the mark of 1:15.54 held jointly by the 2020 Cal Bears and the 2009 Stanford squad. All four swimmers were at 18.90 or under.

Arizona State finished second, Cody Bybee challenging on the anchor leg with an 18.44. That allowed them to also get under the old record in 1:15.40, an NCAA A cut. Also bound for NCAAs is Arizona in second (1:16.57) and Stanford in fourth (1:16.74).

The points are huge for Cal to claw back their post-diving deficit that had them sixth entering the day. The finish in fourth, 142 points out of the lead held by Stanford but just 12 points behind Arizona for third.

Event 9  Men 200 Yard Freestyle Relay
==================================================================================
         NCAA: N 1:14.08  3/26/2009 Auburn
                          J. Andkjaer, G. Louw, K. Norys, M. Targett
       PAC-12: M 1:14.36  2021      California
                          Seeliger, Hoffer, Carr, Biondi
 PAC-12 Champ: P 1:15.54  2009      Stanford
                          Coville, Staab, J. Dunford, D. Dunford
 PAC-12 Champ: P 1:15.54  2020      Univ of California, Berkeley
                          P Sendyk, R Hoffer, M Jensen, Z Quah
                 1:17.07  A Standard
                 1:17.80  B Standard
    School                           Seed     Finals       Points 
==================================================================================
  1 CAL  'A'                      1:16.46    1:15.00PA       40  
     1) Seeliger, Bjorn SO            2) Alexy, Jack FR               
     3) Carr, Daniel SR               4) Rico Peng, Marcos JR         
       18.73    18.57    18.80    18.90
  2 ASU  'A'                      1:16.60    1:15.40PA       34  
     1) Dolan, Jack JR                2) House, Grant SR              
     3) Swift, Carter SR              4) Bybee, Cody SR               
       18.97    18.81    19.18    18.44
  3 Arizona  'A'                  1:17.71    1:16.57 A       32  
     1) Ercegovic, Marin SR           2) Combs, Tai SR                
     3) Miller, Seth SO               4) Namir, Daniel SR             
       19.34    19.14    19.11    18.98
  4 STAN  'A'                     1:17.61    1:16.74 A       30  
     1) Minakov, Andrei FR            2) Affeld, Jonny SO             
     3) Mihm, Rick SO                 4) Maurer, Luke SO              
       19.10    19.22    19.34    19.08
  5 USC  'A'                      1:17.95    1:17.37 B       28  
     1) Selin, Artem FR               2) Miljenic, Nikola 5Y          
     3) Sancov, Alexei SR             4) Saunders, Max JR             
       19.49    19.26    19.35    19.27

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ezswim

2 years ago

The photo is Carter Swift.