By James Sutherland on SwimSwam
2021 MEN’S PAC-12 CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Sunday, February 28 – Wednesday, March 3
- Houston, TX (Central Time Zone)
- Defending Champion: Cal (3x) (results)
- Prelims: 11:00 AM Central Time (Days 2-4); Finals: 6:00 PM Central Time (Days 1-4)
- Championship Central
- Live Results
- Live Stream
Cal has stormed out of the gates at the 2021 Men’s Pac-12 Championships, having won all six swimming events through two nights of competition.
Monday night was capped off by the Bears’ performance in the 200 free relay, where the team secured a fifth-straight victory in a time of 1:15.80. This was also the fourth Pac-12 title in the event for senior Ryan Hoffer, who followed up an individual win in the 50 free with the field’s fastest relay split.
Hoffer blasted an 18.55 swimming third, putting the race out of reach for USC and Arizona heading into the anchor leg.
His freshman teammate Bjorn Seeliger, who hit a best of 18.84 in the individual race to finish just .03 back for second, also had a scintillating split of 18.66 on the relay, swimming second. Daniel Carr closed the show in 18.98, and Nate Biondi had his fastest swim in two years on the lead-off leg (19.61).
The team’s final time was .26 off of the meet record of 1:15.54, first set by Stanford in 2009 and then matched by the winning Cal team last season that featured Hoffer and three seniors: Pawel Sendyk, Michael Jensen and Zheng Quah. In that race, Hoffer split 18.43.
Marin Ercegovic had the fastest lead-off in the field for Arizona at 19.40, coming off of going a best of 19.22 to take third individually, and USC’s Billy Cruz Zuniga had the fastest non-Cal rolling split at 19.14. The junior was 11th in the individual race in 19.87.
Lead-off Legs
| Swimmer | School | Split |
| Marin Ercegovic | Arizona | 19.40 |
| Cooper DeRyk | Utah | 19.48 |
| Nate Biondi | Cal | 19.61 |
| Nikola Miljenic | USC | 19.64 |
| Luke Maurer | Stanford | 19.87 |
| Ethan Dang | Stanford | 20.53 |
Flying Splits
*Cal’s ‘B’ team was disqualified for a false start from the lead-off swimmer, but we’ve included the team’s subsequent relay splits for the purpose of this exercise.
| Swimmer | School | Split |
| Ryan Hoffer | Cal | 18.55 |
| Bjorn Seeliger | Cal | 18.66 |
| Daniel Carr | Cal | 18.98 |
| Billy Cruz Zuniga | USC | 19.14 |
| Jonny Affeld | Stanford | 19.21 |
| Alexei Sancov | USC | 19.29 |
| Max Saunders | USC | 19.3 |
| Mason Gonzalez | Stanford | 19.39 |
| Tai Combs | Arizona | 19.39 |
| Finn O’Haimhirgin | Utah | 19.43 |
| Rick Mihm | Stanford | 19.45 |
| Ogi Maric | Arizona | 19.48 |
| Destin Lasco | Cal ‘B’ | 19.58 |
| Noah Reid | Arizona | 19.59 |
| Bryce Mefford | Cal ‘B’ | 19.73 |
| Neel Roy | Stanford ‘B’ | 19.9 |
| William Tarvestad | Stanford ‘B’ | 19.91 |
| Santiago Contreras | Utah | 19.95 |
| Felix Chiun | Utah | 19.97 |
| Jarod Hatch | Cal ‘B’ | 20.03 |
| Leon MacAlister | Stanford ‘B’ | 20.12 |
TEAM SCORES (THRU DAY 2 + DIVING)
- Stanford, 339
- Cal, 334
- Arizona, 271
- Utah, 235
- USC, 190
Read the full story on SwimSwam: Pac-12 Relay Splits: Hoffer, Seeliger Pop 18-Mids On 200 Free Relay