2019 Men’s Pac-12 Swimming and Diving Championships: Cal Sweeps Events On Day Four, Wins Second Straight Pac-12 Championships

October 10, 2018; Spieker Aquatics Complexx, Berkeley, California, USA; Swimming-College: Utah at Cal: Men 100 Yard Breaststroke; Reece Whitley Photo credit: Kelley L Cox- KLC fotos

Photo Courtesy: Kelley L Cox

The Golden Bears have repeated at Pac-12 Champions, winning their second straight title tonight.

Cal was absolutely dominant on the final night of the 2019 Men’s Pac-12 Swimming and Diving Championships, sweeping every event of the session and breaking two Pac-12 meet records. The Bears also won the closing 400 free relay, giving them a clean sweep of all five relays at Pac-12’s. Check out full results below and recaps of all the swims from the night.

Final Scores:

1- Cal (948)
2- Stanford (716)
3- University of Arizona (570)
4- Arizona State (459.5)
5- USC (366.5)
6- Utah (335)

1650 Free

Cal senior Nick Norman got the Golden Bears off to a strong start on the final night of Pac-12’s, opening up with a dominant win in the mile with a 14:33.96. That was not only a season best for Norman, but it broke the Pac-12 record in that event which had stood at 14:35.93.

That record had been held by Stanford’s True Sweetser, who was fourth in this final in 14:49.41. In second was Sweetser’s teammate, James Murphy (14:44.07), while Cal sophomore Sean Grieshop rounded out the podium in third (14.44.83).

Event 16  Men 1650 Yard Freestyle
==================================================================
    Name                 Year School               Seed     Finals        
==================================================================
  1 Norman, Nick           SR CAL-PC           14:46.56   14:33.96  
  2 Murphy, James          JR STAN-PC          14:53.83   14:44.07  
  3 Grieshop, Sean         SO CAL-PC           14:56.63   14:44.83  
  4 Sweetser, True         JR STAN-PC          14:46.43   14:49.41  
  5 Fail, Brooks           SO UA-AZ            14:43.90   14:50.88  
  6 Hirschberger, Matthew  SO STAN-PC          14:56.48   14:54.65  
  7 Olszewski, Benjamin    JR ASU-AZ           15:06.93   14:56.21  
  8 Johansson, Victor      FR USC-CA           14:55.57   14:57.15

200 Back

Sophomore Bryce Mefford kept the ball rolling for Cal in the 200 back, winning the second individual event of the night and dropping more than two seconds from his prelims time. Mefford finished in 1:39.13 and was joined under the 1:40 barrier by Zachary Poti (1:39.88), who won the 100 back earlier in the meet.

Rounding out the podium was another Cal sophomore, Daniel Carr, who was third in 1:40.25. Carr was also runner-up to Poti in the 100 back earlier in the meet.

 Event 17  Men 200 Yard Backstroke
==================================================================
    Name                 Year School            Prelims     Finals        
==================================================================
                        === A - Final ===                         
 
  1 Mefford, Bryce         SO CAL-PC            1:41.19    1:39.13  
  2 Poti, Zachary          JR ASU-AZ            1:40.96    1:39.88  
  3 Carr, Daniel           SO CAL-PC            1:41.08    1:40.25  
  4 Conaton, Patrick       SR STAN-PC           1:40.47    1:40.92  
  5 Cowand, Glen           SO STAN-PC           1:41.61    1:41.97  
  6 McArthur, Daniel       SR UTAH-UT           1:41.49    1:42.62  
  7 Ho, Ben                JR STAN-PC           1:42.31    1:42.81  
  8 Anderson, Thomas       JR UA-AZ             1:41.23    1:43.29

100 Free

Pawel Sendyk got his second win at Pac-12’s in a dramatic fashion, dropping more than a second from his prelims swim to finish first out of lane 8 in 41.95. That is a huge best time for the Cal junior and his first time under 42 seconds. Sendyk had already won the 50 free earlier in the meet, where he led a 1-2-3 sweep for Cal.

In second was Michael Jensen, who was the top seed coming into tonight’s final. His time of 42.15 just misses lifetime best. Cal almost made it a 1-2-3 sweep again in the sprint event, but Utah senior Austin Phillips broke up the Golden Bear contingent with a strong swim of 42.29 for bronze. In fourth was Cal sophomore Ryan Hoffer (42.40).

 Event 18  Men 100 Yard Freestyle
==================================================================
    Name                 Year School            Prelims     Finals        
==================================================================
                        === A - Final ===                         
 
  1 Sendyk, Pawel          JR CAL-PC              43.00      41.95  
  2 Jensen, Michael        JR CAL-PC              42.37      42.15  
  3 Phillips, Austin       SR UTAH-UT             42.61      42.29  
  4 Hoffer, Ryan           SO CAL-PC              42.64      42.40  
  5 O'Haimhirgin, Liam     JR UTAH-UT             42.69      42.54  
  6 Swift, Carter          SO ASU-AZ              42.52      42.80  
  6 Miljenic, Nikola       SO USC-CA              42.68      42.80  
  8 Iga, Jorge             JR UA-AZ               42.91      42.91

200 Breast

Andrew Seliskar had a monster swim in the 200 breast, dropping more than three seconds from his prelims swim to absolutely destroy his old meet record. Seliskar touched in 1:49.80, taking down his meet record of 1:51.30 and breaking 1:50 for the first time in his career. The Cal senior’s previous best time had been a 1:50.40 from last year’s NCAA’s. That swim also makes Seliskar that fastest 200 breaststroker so far this season and the first swimmer to break 1:50 this year.

In second was teammate Reece Whitley (1:50.62), who dropped a second from his own lifetime best to move up to third in the country. These two were well ahead of the field, with third going to Arizona freshman David Schlicht (1:53.50). Schlicht was also runner-up in the 200 IM and 400 IM. This was Cal’s third straight event win of the evening and their second 1-2 finish of the night.

Event 19  Men 200 Yard Breaststroke
==================================================================
    Name                 Year School            Prelims     Finals        
==================================================================
                        === A - Final ===                         
 
  1 Seliskar, Andrew       SR CAL-PC            1:53.14    1:49.80  
  2 Whitley, Reece         FR CAL-PC            1:52.39    1:50.62  
  3 Schlicht, David        FR UA-AZ             1:54.13    1:53.50  
  4 Roy, Daniel            FR STAN-PC           1:54.12    1:53.75  
  5 Arvidsson, Karl        JR CAL-PC            1:54.37    1:54.44  
  6 Pastorek, Brennan      SO STAN-PC           1:53.32    1:54.54  
  7 Iida, Sam              SO UA-AZ             1:53.79    1:54.62  
  8 Poppe, Hank            JR STAN-PC           1:53.25    1:54.82

200 Fly

Cal junior Zheng Quah gave the Golden Bears a sweep of individual events while also breaking his own meet record in the 200 fly. Quah touched first in 1:39.86, taking down his own meet record of 1:40.24 and putting him close to his Pac-12 record and lifetime best of 1:39.29 from the Georgia Invitational in the fall.

Cal made it a 1-2-3 sweep of this event, with sophomore Trenton Julian coming in second in 1:41.74 and senior Mike Thomas grabbing third in 1:42.17.

 Event 20  Men 200 Yard Butterfly
==================================================================
    Name                 Year School            Prelims     Finals        
==================================================================
                        === A - Final ===                         
 
  1 Quah, Zheng            JR CAL-PC            1:42.28    1:39.86  
  2 Julian, Trenton        SO CAL-PC            1:42.79    1:41.74  
  3 Thomas, Mike           SR CAL-PC            1:43.29    1:42.17  
  4 Liang, Alex            SO STAN-PC           1:42.99    1:42.74  
  5 Xie, Jack              JR CAL-PC            1:43.33    1:43.14  
  6 Meyer, Brendan         JR UA-AZ             1:43.31    1:43.23  
  7 Jurek, Mark            JR USC-CA            1:44.67    1:44.41  
  8 Oh, Mathias            SR UA-AZ             1:44.23    1:45.16

400 Free Relay

Cal closed the meet with another relay win, touching first in a dominant 2:48.80 to complete their sweep of all five relays at the Pac-12 Championships. The team of Michael Jensen (42.33), Pawel Sendyk (42.30), Ryan Hoffer (42.27), and Andrew Seliskar (41.90) led the field from start to finish to put an exclamation point on strong meet for the Cal Bears.

That time was just off their second-ranked time in the country from the Georgia Invite in the fall, and looking at the flat starts that Jensen, Sendyk, and Hoffer put up in the individual 100 free earlier in the session there is reason to believe this relay could be a full second or two faster come NCAA’s.

 Event 21  Men 400 Yard Freestyle Relay
====================================================================
    School                                 Seed     Finals        
====================================================================
  1 CAL-PC  'A'                         2:48.44    2:48.80  
     1) Jensen, Michael JR            2) Sendyk, Pawel JR             
     3) Hoffer, Ryan SO               4) Seliskar, Andrew SR          
  2 UA-AZ  'A'                          2:52.02    2:50.45  
     1) Iga, Jorge JR                 2) Dobbs, Chatham SR            
     3) Anderson, Thomas JR           4) Ercegovic, Marin FR          
  3 ASU-AZ  'A'                         2:52.60    2:50.51  
     1) Swift, Carter SO              2) Carlson, Evan SO             
     3) Poti, Zachary JR              4) House, Grant SO              
  4 STAN-PC  'A'                        2:51.96    2:51.67  
     1) Cogswell, Cole SR             2) DeVine, Abrahm SR            
     3) LeVant, Jack FR               4) Conaton, Patrick SR          
  5 UTAH-UT  'A'                        2:52.60    2:52.36  
     1) O'Haimhirgin, Liam JR         2) Phillips, Austin SR          
     3) Chiun, Felix SO               4) Moreira, Rodolfo SO          
  6 USC-CA  'A'                         2:53.30    2:53.27  
     1) Miljenic, Nikola SO           2) Grissom, Kyle SR             
     3) Sancov, Alexei FR             4) Mulcare, Patrick SR          
  7 UA-AZ  'B'                          2:56.80   x2:57.37  
     1) Reid, Noah JR                 2) Namir, Daniel FR             
     3) Johnston, Aldan FR            4) Schlicht, David FR           
  8 USC-CA  'B'                              NT   x2:57.93  
     1) Finello, Thomas FR            2) Reed, Thomas JR              
     3) Ama, Joao JR                  4) Koenigsperger, Mario

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