Historical performances headline day two of men's swimming championships
• Complete Day Two Results (PDF)
• 2014 Pac-12 Men's Swimming Championships Central
FEDERAL WAY, Wash. - There were even more record-setting performances and historical finishes in day two of the 2014 Pac-12 Men’s Swimming Championships. CALIFORNIA claimed the lead through seven full events, posting a score of 271 points to burst to the front of the pack. STANFORD follows with 243, and USC is currently in third with 208 points after the Trojans led at the end of day one.
The finals opened with USC’s Cristian Quintero capturing his second-consecutive title in the 500 free in record fashion. The junior shattered the previous record of 4:12.99, set by Jean Basson of Arizona in 2009, as well as his own previous best final time of 4:13.37, which he swam last year to win the same championship. Teammate freshman Reed Malone, who was seeded first, came in a close second and also broke Basson’s record, touching at 4:12.66. Matt Barber of Arizona swam a 4:14.36, giving three swimmers NCAA A-cuts above the 4:15.29 standard.
Stanford junior Dave Nolan became only the third Pac-12 student-athlete to win three-consecutive titles in the 200 individual medley, breaking a Conference and meet record as he won the event by nearly two full seconds. Nolan swam a 1:41.49, besting the Championships record of 1:42.01 and the overall Conference record of 1:41.52, both of which were set by fellow Cardinal Austin Staab in 2011. CALIFORNIA’s Josh Prenot and Will Hamilton rounded out the podium, with both swimmers recording NCAA A-cuts of 1:43.31 and 1:43.36, respectively.
Brad Tandy captured Arizona’s fourth 50 free Pac-12 title after entering the meet without any seeding time and swimming a 19.07 in the preliminary round, the fasted time of all swimmers in the prelims. Tandy swam an 18.80 in the final, besting the Pac-12 Championships record of 18.82 set in 2009 by California’s Nathan Adrian. The junior Wildcat recorded the lone A-cut time of the event. Joining him on the podium was Cal’s Seth Stubblefield at second and UTAH’s Nick Soedel at third.
In the 200 free relay, California grabbed its first title of the meet as the team of Tyler Messerschmidt, Ryan Murphy, Tony Cox and Seth Stubblefield swam an NCAA A-cut time of 1:16.67. It was the Bears’ first championship in the event since 2011. USC’s team of Jack Wagner, Dylan Carter, Santo Condorelli and Cristian Quintero also got an A-cut at 1:17.43, while Arizona’s team of Tandy, Renny Richmond, Jeff Amlee and Brian Stevens swam the other A-cut in the event at 1:17.65.
The 2014 Pac-12 Men’s Swimming Championships continues tomorrow, Friday, March 7. Preliminaries begin at 11 a.m. and finals start at 6 p.m. in the 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast, 100 back and the 400-medley.