2023 MEN’S PAC-12 SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
Just hours earlier than the 2023 Pac-12 Swimming & Diving Championships start on Wednesday, SwimSwam has obtained psych sheets from the convention.
And all your largest questions are nonetheless unanswered.
Arizona State sophomore Leon Marchand, the very best swimmer within the NCAA this season, is entered in 5 particular person occasions, which he’ll must whittle down to three all through the week, at the very least for scoring functions. The Pac-12 lets athletes swim additional races in prelims as exhibition swims, and big-name swimmers usually do (like Claire Curzan on the ladies’s meet final week within the 50 free).
Marchand might be a favourite in any of these 5 races he swims. He is the highest seed within the 500 free (4:07.81) and 200 IM (1:38.89) on day 2, the 400 IM (3:31.84) on day 3, and the 200 breaststroke (1:48.82) and 200 fly (1:39.57) on day 4. That means he’s not swimming, for instance, the 100 breaststroke, the place he’s additionally #1 within the convention thus far this season, by half-a-second.
The race of that grouping the place he could be most-challenged could be the 200 fly, the place Cal sophomore Gabriel Jett and Marchand’s senior teammate Alexander Colson are usually not far off his tail.
He may even have huge matchups with Cal junior Destin Lasco within the 200 IM and Cal fifth yr Reece Whitley within the 200 breaststroke.
Lasco is the #2 seed within the males’s 200 IM, and is the highest seed within the 100 again and 200 again.
There are a number of different notable decisions that have been made. Most of them are usually not surprises, however there have been decisions to be made.
- Stanford sophomore Ron Polonsky is entered within the 200 IM, 400 IM, 100 breast, and 200 breast. He swam the 200 IM, 400 IM, and 200 breast final yr, although this yr he’s the #2 seed within the 100 breast, which may sway his decisions. He additionally ranks sixth within the convention within the 200 free and 500 free this season.
- Stanford’s Andrei Minakov, the defending NCAA Champion within the 100 fly, will swim the 50 free, 100 free, and 100 fly this week. That means no 200 free or 200 fly. His seeds are decrease than regular as a result of he didn’t be a part of the staff till the spring semester, spending the autumn at residence in Russia. At final yr’s Pac-12 Championships, he received the 100 fly and was 2nd within the 50 free.
- Arizona State’s Grant House will swim the 200 IM, 200 free, and 100 free. The freestyle races are a given for him, although he’s eighth within the Pac-12 within the 100 fly this season. That double wasn’t sufficient to sway him out of the 200 IM, although, the place he’s the 4th seed.
- Cal sophomore Evan Petty isn’t entered within the meet, although he’d be a top-8 seed within the 100 backstroke. He didn’t swim at Pac-12s final yr both.
- Arizona State’s two greatest distance swimmers aren’t entered within the meet. Dylan Gravley (fifth seed – 1650 free) and Parker Reynolds (seventh seed – 1650 free) are each not entered within the meet.
- Arizona State’s semester pickup Hubert Kos from Hungary has entries within the 200 IM, 400 IM, 100 fly, and 200 backstroke. That means no 200 fly, the place he ranks eighth within the convention thus far this season.
