FEDERAL WAY, Wash. -- California took home its second consecutive conference title, winning the 2014 Pac-12 Men’s Swimming Championships on Saturday evening. The Golden Bears scored 786 points en route to the victory, more than 100 points ahead of second-place finisher Stanford and third-place finisher USC.
Arizona came in fourth in the final standings, followed by Utah at fifth and Arizona State at sixth. UC Santa Barbara placed seventh and Cal Poly rounded out the standings at eighth.
Cal’s final day of competition was highlighted by freshman Ryan Murphy, who earned his second individual victory and set his first meet record in the 200 back. Murphy swam a time of 1:39.21, one of three NCAA A-cut times in the event, beating the previous record of 1:40.39 set last year by Stanford’s Dave Nolan. Nolan finished third in the event behind Cal’s Jacob Pebley, who was second with a time of 1:40.38.
Utah made history in the Pac-12 Championships meet, winning its first Pac-12 individual titles in school history. The Utes took home the first individual championship of the night as sophomore Bence Kiraly won the 1,650 free with a time of 14:58.37, good enough for an NCAA B-cut. Cal Poly’s Sonny Fierro placed second in the long-distance event, followed by Adam Hinshaw of Cal.
Later that day, Utah took home its second Pac-12 individual championship as junior Nick Soedel won the 100 free, beating out USC Olympian Cristian Quintero who placed second and junior Seth Stubblefield of California who placed third. Soedel swam an A-cut time of 42.00 even in the event.
Arizona State grabbed its first individual title in the 200 fly as senior Alex Coci took home the championship in the 200 fly. It was also the first overall individual championship since C.J. Nuess won the 1,650 free in 2008. Coci was followed by two Golden Bears as Cal’s Will Hamilton, the 2012 NCAA 200 fly champion, placed second with a time of 1:43.13 and Long Gutierrez placed third for the Bears with a time of 1:43.64.
Arizona’s Kevin Cordes snagged the 200 breast title, his second individual championship, breaking yet another meet record in the process. Cordes swam a time of 1:51.80, besting Gary Marshall of Stanford’s Pac-12 Championship time of 1:52.71. He was joined on the podium by Josh Prenot of California at second and Sam Rowan of Arizona at third.
The 400 free relay wrapped up the night with a controversial finish as California placed first but had an early take-off on the third leg and was disqualified. USC took home the relay title with a time of 2:51.95 thanks to the team of Cristian Quintero, Dylan Carter, Jack Wagner and Dimitri Colupaev. In second place was Arizona’s squad of Brad Tandy, Brian Stevens, Giles Smith and Mitchell Friedemann. Rounding out the podium was the Utah team of Nick Soedel, Jonas Holmstrom, Alex Fernandes and Ken Tiltges.
In diving, ASU freshman Luke Clohessy snagged the Sun Devils’ second diving title of the meet, winning the platform competition for the Devils.
