FEDERAL WAY, Wash. – David Nolan became the third Pac-12 Conference student-athlete to win three consecutive titles in the 200 individual medley, breaking a league and meet record after winning by nearly two seconds Friday evening in 1:41.49. Nolan notched the win at the Pac-12 Men’s Swimming Championships by bettering the showdown’s record of 1:42.01 and the overall league record of 1:41.52, both of which were set by fellow Cardinal Austin Staab in 2011.
The efforts of Nolan, the school record holder in the event at 1:41.21, helped bump the Cardinal from fourth to second in the standings with 243 points behind first-place Cal (271). USC is in third with 208 points after the Trojans led at the end of day one.
“We did a good job of taking care of business this morning, and were a little off from that tonight” said Ted Knapp, Stanford’s Goldman Family Director of Men’s Swimming. “We’re capable of a great prelims tomorrow to set us up for a competitive evening.”
The event at the King County Aquatic Center continues Friday with preliminaries beginning at 11 a.m. (PT) and finals start at 6 p.m. The upcoming races include the 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast, 100 back and 400 medley relay.
Nolan was one of five Cardinal in the 200 IM finals after a tremendous morning session in the event for Stanford. The back half of the final race saw the Cardinal claim spots 5-6-7-8 behind the swims of Max Williamson (1:44.61), Gray Umbach (1:45.09), Tom Kremer (1:45.12) and Will Gunderson (1:45.84).
Friday’s finals opened with Cristian Quintero of USC capturing his second consecutive title in the 500 free with a conference-record 4:12.99. Bryan Offutt scored with a seventh-place 4:21.53.
Arizona’s Brad Tandy went 18.80 in the 50 free finals, besting the Pac-12 Championships record of 18.82 set in 2009 by Cal’s Nathan Adrian. Connor Black was Stanford’s highest finisher with a 19.82 for 13th.
Nolan, Black, Umbach and Kremer went 1:18.74 in the 200 free relay to close out the evening. Cal grabbed its first title of the meet in 1:16.67.