Pac-12 Weekly Recap: ASU Splits With Arizona; Cal, Stanford Tops USC

grant house, arizona state, townley haas, ncaa swimming

In a tense meet that came down to the final relay, No. 17 Sun Devils men’s swimming and diving defeated the No. 15 Arizona Wildcats, 159.5-140.5, on Saturday afternoon at the Hillenbrand Aquatic Center.

The Arizona women closed out the season with a win against rival Arizona State, 180.5-119.5.

The men notched seven individual and one relay win in the meet, highlighted by Zach Poti‘s wins in the 100 and 200 back. The senior has now swept the backstroke events three times this season, including last time out against Stanford. Grant House (200 free), Evan Carlson (50 free), Carter Swift (100 free), Youssef Selim (1 meter) and David Hoffer (3 meter) rounded out the ASU individual victories.

For the Wildcats, Brooks Fail won the 1000 free with 8:55.00, setting a personal-best and fifth-fastest in school history.

Sam Iida set a personal best in the win in the 200 breast with 1:54.58. The sophomore earned an NCAA B cut and moves up to sixth-fastest in school history.

Mik Ranslem won the 200 IM with 1:59.10, earning an NCAA B cut and a personal best.

Hannah Cox won the 1000 free with 9:36.68, a season best.

Aria Bernal won the 100 back, with a season-best 52.40. The freshman earned an NCAA B cut in this race.

Mallory Korenwinder set a season-best in the 100 breast and earned a win (1:00.25). Iida won the 100 breast for the men with a season-best 53.11. Both times earn NCAA B cuts.

Stanford tops USC

No. 7 Stanford wrapped up its 2018-19 home schedule with a convincing 196-93 win over No. 9 USC on Saturday at Avery Aquatic Center.

“USC is a very good team, so we’re pleased with today’s result and the depth we showed,” said Stanford coach Ted Knapp. “All the credit goes to our seniors today. Over four years, they’ve done what it takes to be Stanford student-athletes and today was the latest example of what they bring to our program.”

The Cardinal (5-0-0) won 13 of 14 individual events on the day after the Trojans (3:11.42) claimed the first event of the day, the 400-yard medley relay. Stanford’s team of Patrick Conaton, Matt Anderson, Brad Zdroik and Abrahm DeVine (3:11.49) finished second.

True Sweetser (9:00.43) won the first individual event, the 1,000-yard freestyle. Jack LeVant (1:35.04) made it two in row with a win in the 200-yard freestyle before Conaton (48.55) won the 100-yard backstroke.

Alex Liang (1:47.39) won the 200-yard butterfly. Cole Cogswell (20.17) out touched DeVine (20.19) in the 50-yard freestyle.

The Cardinal also won both diving events, starting with Conor Casey (391.13) on the 1-meter springboard. Noah Vigran (285.75) finished third, adding a win on the 3-meter springboard with a score of 363.00, followed by Casey (341.48) in second.

DeVine (44.59) kept the Cardinal wins coming with first place in the 100-yard freestyle, beating classmate Cogswell (44.62) by .03 seconds. Calloni (1:44.10) led the way in the 200-yard backstroke before Daniel Roy (1:58.06) won the 200-yard breaststroke.

Levant (4:20.25) paced the field in the 500-yard freestyle, Zdroik (47.31) captured the 100-yard butterfly and DeVine (1:47.51) blitzed the field by over four seconds in the 200-yard individual medley to wrap up the individual swims.

USC senior Carsten Vissering claimed the 100y breast and joined teammates seniors Patrick Mulcare and Alex Valente and sophomore Nikola Miljenic to win the 400y medley relay in the Trojans’ 196-93 loss at Stanford on Saturday (Feb. 9).

Vissering won the 100y breast in 52.38, claiming the event by more than two seconds. He joined Mulcare, Valente and Miljenic to win the meet’s opening relay with a 3:11.42, hitting the wall 0.07 ahead of Stanford.

Cal beats USC

The rain came down in Berkeley on Friday afternoon, but not on Cal’s parade.

The Bears’ men’s swimming and diving team overcame the elements to dominate USC 156-126 at Spieker Aquatics Complex. The win improved Cal’s dual meet record to 5-0 with one more matchup remaining later this month against Stanford.

The Bears won 15 of 16 events, swimming several of the races during the second half of the meet as exhibitions. Decorated senior Andrew Seliskar, swimming in his penultimate home meet, took three events while junior Zheng Quah won a pair. Junior Connor Callahan won both diving events.

“We stayed aggressive in our races from start to finish,” Cal coach Dave Durden said. “There was no complaining, and on a day like today there is a lot to complain about. I just thought whether a guy was racing one or racing four times, they stayed aggressive in all of their races.”

With rainfall ranging from moderate to hard throughout the meet, the Bears overwhelmed the Trojans with their superior depth. Cal had the top two finishers in 11 events and the top three in seven.

Seliskar won the 200 freestyle (1:33.77), 200 breaststroke (1:53.48) and 200 individual medley (1:44.07), swimming the final two as an exhibition. Quah swept the butterfly events, winning the 100 in 46.54 as an exhibition and the 200 in 1:42.17.

USC’s Vissering claimed his specialty with a 52.34 to win the 100y breast, USC’s lone victory on the day.

Utah beats Oregon State on senior day

The Utah women’s swimmers capped a successful senior day at Don Reddish Pool with a 173-85 win over Oregon State

“I thought it was a great day for all five seniors,” Utah coach Joe Dykstra said. “Darby set a pool record, Jordan swam her fly events and then got back on the blocks to anchor that all-senior relay to win by one-hundredth of a second, Ianire and Gillian put up solid times and Genny, coming back from her injury, was able to compete in a winning relay. These are memories that they will carry with them their whole lives. I also want to thank our fans for their support and the amazing turnout today.”

An emotional afternoon came to a fitting conclusion as four of the five seniors swam in the winning 200 free relay. Darby Wayner, Gillian St. John, Ianire Casarin and Jordan Anderson captured it for the Utes in a time of 1:35.67.

In her final home meet, Wayner would also set the pool record in the 100 breast (1:02.73) and win the 200 in 2:18.73. Her classmates also came through as Anderson won the 200 fly (2:05.23) and St. John was victorious in the 50 free (23.64).

The fifth senior, Genny Robertson, teamed with St. John, Aryanna Fernandes and Emma Lawless to guide Utah to a win in the meet’s first event, the 200 medley relay (1:42.30). Fernandes also won a pair of individual events, taking the 100 free in 51.86 and the 200 IM in 2:05.51.

With the seniors in the spotlight, some other Utes shined in the pool. Sara McClendon won both the 200 and 500 free events, Mandy Gebhart took the 1000 free in 10:41.26, Sarah Lott won the 100 back (55.19), Emma Broome captured the 100 fly (57.03) and Audrey Reimer won the 200 back (2:02.41).

Oregon State freshman Kristina Schneider continued her impressive February with a pair of top three finishes in her two individual events of the day. She finished with a time of 1:57.52 in the 200 free, good for a second-place finish, and followed it up with a third-place performance in the 100 free with a final time of 53.70.

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