Stanford Brings Home Pac-10 Championship

Team Standings
1. Stanford, 918.5
2. California, 866
3. Arizona, 647
4. USC, 396
5. Washington, 309
6. Arizona State, 238.5 

CAL PLACES SECOND AT PAC-10 MEN’S SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS; ADRIAN NAMED MEET MVP
The California men's swimming team won two more events during the final day of the 2009 Pac-10 Championships at the Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach, with sophomore Olympian Nathan Adrian capturing the 100 free and freshman standout Nolan Koon leading a Bear sweep in the 200 breaststroke. The Golden Bears finished second in the conference meet with 866 points, trailing only Stanford (918.5) and ahead of defending 2008 NCAA champion Arizona (647).

Adrian was named the 2009 Pac-10 Swimmer of the Meet after winning the 50, 100 and 200 freestyle, and swimming the freestyle leg of Cal’s conference champion 400 medley relay (NCAA record time 3:03.30, senior backstroker David Russell, sophomore breaststroker Damir Dugonjic, sophomore butterflyer Graeme Moore and Adrian). He won the 100 free Saturday in a Pac-10 meet record time of 41.64, topping the former mark of 41.96 set by the Bears’ Duje Draganja in 2004.

Cal’s other Pac-10 champion on Saturday was freshman Koon in the 200 breast with a time of 1:54.22, followed by junior Sean Mahoney with a time of 1:54.27 and sophomore Martti Aljand with a 1:54.37. Freshman Martin Liivamagi placed seventh in the 200 breast (1:55.75).

The additional 2009 individual Pac-10 champions for the Bears included Aljand winning the 200 IM (1:43.59) on Thursday and sophomore Damir Dugonjic placing first in the 100 breast in an NCAA record time of 51.41 on Friday. Cal also won the meet’s first event, the 200 medley relay, on Wednesday in a Pac-10 meet and Golden Bear school record time of 1:23.98. The Cal team of Russell, Dugonjic, sophomore butterflyer Graeme Moore and senior freestyler Bennett Clark topped the former conference meet record of 1:24.82 set by Stanford in 2005.

Other highlights for the Bears on Saturday were their 400 free relay placing second (2:48.62, Adrian, Moore, sophomore Josh Daniels, Clark), junior Peter Davis finishing third in the 200 fly (1:43.49), Moore placing fourth (42.71) and Clark seventh (43.09) in the 100 free.

In the 200 back Saturday, Russell placed third with an NCAA automatic time of 1:41.06, sophomore Guy Barnea was seventh with a time of 1:44.18 and junior Aaron Casey was eighth with a mark of 1:50.92. In the 1650 free, Casey was seventh (15:10.84), freshman Isaac Howell was eighth (15:15.63) and senior John Foster was 11th (15:35.43).

The Bears will next compete at the 2009 NCAA Championships, March 26-28 in College Station, Texas.

USC Men's Swimming Takes 4th At 2009 Pac-10 Championships
Junior Zoltan Povazsay turned in USC’s highest finish in the 200 free since 2002 while James Martin and Vanni Mangoni both reached the final of the 400 IM on the third day the 2009 Pac-10 Championships on Friday (March 6) at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach, Calif.

Povazsay finished third in a personal-best 1:34.52, behind 2008 Olympians Nathan Adrian of Cal (1:32.98) and South African Jean Basson of Arizona (1:33.77). The USC Hungarian, also a 2008 Olympian (though he didn’t compete in Beijing), trailed by less than half a second halfway through the race and was among a pack of swimmers all battling for the lead with 50 yards to go. The last Trojan to finish as high or better in the Pac-10 200 free was Klete Keller, who won the event I 2002. Keller’s teammate, Rodrigo Castro, was second that year as well.

Povazsay’s swim makes him the fourth-fastest Trojan ever in the race and less than a second off of Bela Szabados’ record (1:33.87) set in 1999.

Martin, in his second straight Pac-10 400 IM final, took seventh (3:47.16) in a personal best, while Mangoni, in his third straight conference finale in the race, was eighth (3:47.60) in a season-best. Both swimmers improved upon their NCAA ‘B’ cuts. Both are already among USC’s top 10 in the event.

Also in the 400 IM, sophomore Dillon Connolly’s 10th-place finish in 3:49.65 was an NCAA consideration time and almost six seconds faster than his previous season-best. Sophomore Kevin Little finished 13th (3:56.79), freshman Colin Heinrich was 14th (3:58.70) and Evan Marcus was 17th (4:13.47), all in season-best efforts.

Senior Ankur Poseria was ninth in the 100 fly in 46.83, making him the second-fastest Trojan ever in race (behind only Sam Masson’s 46.09 set in 2006). It also improved upon his NCAA ‘B’ cut. Freshman Josh Joiner was 14th in a personal-best 48.03 while freshman Jeff Daniels was 18th (48.37) and freshman T.J. Auner was 20th (48.74), both in season-best swims.

Sophomore Luke Tanner finished 15th in the 200 free in 1:37.17 after posting a season-best 1:37.13 in prelims. Sophomore Buddy Turner was 24th (1:39.24) after a season-best 1:37.26 in prelims and freshman Julian Bonse was 31st in a season-best 1:40.06.

Senior Kevin Bartell became the third-fastest Trojan ever in the 100 breast with an NCAA consideration 53.88 that helped him to 11th while senior Kazu Miyahara was 16th in a personal-best 55.44.

Freshman T.J. Auner (48.63) and sophomore Jake Grosser (48.91) were 11th and 12th, respectively in the 100 back. Grosser went 48.57 in prelims, making him the ninth-fastest Trojan in the race, while Auner’s final time makes him 10th fastest.

USC’s 400 medley relay of Mangoni, Bartell, Poseria and Grosser was fifth in a season-best and NCAA consideration time of 3:12.62.
 
UW Men’s Swimming Finishes Fifth, Breaks 13 School Records
The Washington men’s swim team finished fifth in the Pac-10 Championships for the first time since 1995-96 and just the second time ever, capping the meet Saturday with four more school records to give them 13 in the four-day championships.

The Huskies saw eight individual records and all five relay records fall during the week, capped by the 400 free relay record falling in the final event of the competition. Evan Bernier, David Bai, Anthony Falaniko and Ben Aaberg finished sixth in 2:54.96, nearly three seconds faster than the previous record. Bernier’s leadoff 100 free split of 42.83 also broke his own 100 free school record. It marked Bernier’s third school record in four days.

Senior Jon Banker capped an outstanding meet by breaking his third school record of the week, finishing sixth in the finals of the 200 back while breaking his own record in the event in the prelims. He qualified third in 1:42.85, nearly three seconds under his own previous school-record time. He went on to finish sixth in the finals in 1:43.81.

Andre Blyth picked up his first school record of the meet, finishing fifth in the 200 fly in 1:43.74 to break his own record, which he set earlier in the day in the prelims. Blyth qualified for the A final in fourth with a prelim time of 1:44.15, which was nearly two seconds better than the school-record time he held coming into the meet.

Erez Fern also qualified for the 200 fly A final, finishing eighth overall with a finals time of 1:46.99. He also went under Blyth’s previous school-record time in the prelims, qualifying seventh in 1:45.74, the second-fastest in UW history.

Jonny Muir added a personal best in the 200 fly, finishing 14th overall with a 1:47.95, which ranks sixth all time.

Scott Spansail just missed becoming UW’s first individual Pac-10 champion since 2004, finishing second in the 1650 free. His time of 14:44.24 was just behind Stanford’s Chad La Tourette, who won the race in 14:39.01.

Anthony Falaniko was the highest finisher in the 100 free prelims, qualifying 17th in 44.20 which is the third-fastest time in UW history. David Bai and Ben Aaberg, meanwhile, both touched the wall in 44.31 to tie for the fifth-fastest time for a Husky. Niko Micin also jumped into the top-10 with his 44.53 to move into seventh.

Bai went on to finish 18th overall in the event, improving his time in the bonus final to 44.27.

In the 200 breast, Yonatan Cohen qualified with the 10th fastest time of 1:57.28 which also moved him into No. 3 all time at UW. Cohen touched the wall in 1:58.76 in the B final to place 15th.

The Huskies broke records this week in the 200, 400 and 800 free relays, the 200 and 400 medley relays, the 500 free (Spansail), 200 IM, 100 back and 200 back (Banker), the 100 free, 200 free and 100 fly (Bernier) and 200 fly (Blyth).

“Unfortunately, they combine swimming and diving, but we came away as the fourth-best swim team even though the results don’t reflect it. We had a hell of a meet,” Washington head coach Whitney Hite said. “We struggled a little today but still got a couple of school records. To get 13 school records out of 18 events is pretty damn good and we have seven guys going to NCAAs. We’ve come a long way in a very short amount if time so I’m proud of the guys. These guys are pretty tired so we’ll rest them and then we’ll be ready to go climb the mountain and see how high we can go.”                

Both the UW men’s and women’s swim teams now turn their attention to the NCAA Championships, which each take place in College, Station, Texas. The women will hit the pool, March 19-21, while the men compete March 26-28.

ASU Swimming Places Sixth at Men’s Swimming Pac-10 Championships
The Arizona State men’s swimming team finished sixth at the Pac-10 Men’s Swimming Championships. The team scored 238.5 points over the past four days.

“This was a good meet for us. We swam, nearly, all personal best times,” said eleventh year head coach Michael Chasson. “We have the smallest team here by about seven or eight guys but we swam very well.”

The 200 back proved to be one of the most exciting races for the Sun Devils. Freshman Xavier Mohammed checked in at fourth all-time in the event. Mohammed, who was recently cleared to join the team this week, finished in 1:44.32. Both times were NCAA consideration marks.  Junior Max Laney surpassed assistant coach Simon Percy in the ASU record book to move to sixth all-time. Laney clocked in at 1:44.85 in the preliminaries to move up in the records.

Sean Boyle earned an NCAA consideration time in the 200 fly. Boyle placed second in the consolation final after touching in at 1:45.14. Alex Hier clocked in a personal best 1:49.46 as did Yutaro Yamashita at 1:49.48.

In the 100 free, Tony Cisneros clocked in a preliminary time of 44.12. Vinicius Waked finished in 44.30 while Mohammed Madwa checked in at 44.35. All three were personal best times.

Anthony Calenti finished the 1650 free in a personal best 15:49.40. Senior Luke Herlehy clocked in at 15:53.29.

The Sun Devils await to find out who qualifies for the NCAA Championships.