No. 7 USC Starts Pac-10 Championships Wednesday

No. 7 USC Starts Pac-10 Championships Wednesday

February 28, 2011 | Men's Swimming & Diving

Feb. 28, 2011

The No. 7 USC men's swimming and diving team (6-3), led by All-Americans Clement Lefert and Patrick White and a strong corps of up-and-comers spearheaded by record-breaking freshman sprinter Vladimir Morozov, will compete at the 2011 Pac-10 Swimming Championships, Wednesday through Saturday (March 2-5) at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach, Calif.

The Pac-10, as usual, is loaded and features four teams in the top 7: No. 1 Cal, No. 2 Stanford, No. 6 Arizona and No. 7 USC.

Click here for the Pac-10 Championships home site, featuring results, recaps, photo galleries and a link to live results.
Click here for the Pac-10 Championships psych sheet.

Click here for the meet schedule.

SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE
Events begin on Wednesday (March 2) with timed finals of the 200y medley and 800y free relays that begin at 6 p.m. From Thursday through Saturday (March 3-5), prelims begin at 11 a.m. and finals start at 6 p.m. each day. Thursday's schedule features the 500y free, 200y IM, 50y free and 200y free relay. Friday features the 400y IM, 100y fly, 200y free, 100y breast, 100y back and 400y medley relay. Saturday's finale includes the 200y back, 100y free, 200y breast, 200y fly, a timed final of the 1650y free and the 400y free relay.

PAC-10 DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Pac-10 Diving Championships were held last week in conjunction with the conference's women's swimming championships. Trojan junior Harrison Jones earned Men's Diver of the Meet honors after capturing the title on 1-meter, placing third on 3-meter and second on platform. Senior Steven Starks was also a three-time finalist, taking fourth on both 1-meter and platform and sixth on 3-meter.

PAC-10 CHAMPIONSHIPS NOTES
With Harrison Jones' diving title last week, USC has now won at least one Pac-10 title for 15 consecutive seasons (1997-2011) and has 218 conference crowns overall ... Freshman sprinter Vladimir Morozov, who has re-written USC's sprint freestyle record books, has a chance to end long title droughts in the sprint events for the Trojans. USC hasn't won a 50y free Pac-10 title since 1995 (Jim Wells) and hasn't claimed a 100y free title since 1991 (Erik Ran). Morozov, however, has stiff competition in Cal senior Nathan Adrian, who is the top-ranked swimmer in the country in the 50y free and is fifth in the 100y free. Adrian is the two-time defending champ in both events. Morozov is fifth in the 50y free and second in the 100y free (first in the Pac-10). Arizona's Nimrod Shapira Bar-Or is also fourth in the 100y free nationally ... USC is the Pac-10 defending champ in the 800y free relay and Troy will enter the 2011 meet as the top seed in the race ... USC will be the No. 2 seed in the 200y free relay, a race that will feature four of the top eight relays in the country. Troy last won the event in 1995 ... Clement Lefert, the defending champion in the 200y free, enter the meet as the second seed in that event (behind Shapira Bar-Or) and is the top seed in the 500y free. He was second in the race last year ... Senior Dillon Connolly owns the top time nationwide in the 100y breast and looks to capture USC's first win in the race since 2003 (Mihaly Flaskay) ... Sophomore Alex Lendrum, ranked fifth nationally in the 200y back, will be in the mix as he vies to win USC's first title in the race since Lenny Krayzelburg in 1998 ... Senior Richard Charlesworth, ranked eighth nationally, will challenge Stanford's two-time defending 1650y free champion Chad La Tourette ... Junior Patrick White is looking to repeat his great Pac-10s last year. A year ago, White was third in the 500y free, second in the 200y free and seventh in the 100y free.

FAST TIMES
The Trojans having a growing list of swimmers who boast NCAA `A' or `B' cuts. Below is a list of USC's 13 swimmers with NCAA and cuts and where the times rank nationally (if among the top 25).
Clement Lefert: 200y free (1:34.14, B, 6th), 500y free (4:18.54, B, 9th), 200y fly (1:46.46, B).
Vladimir Morozov: 50y free (19.32, A, 5th), 100y free (42.06, A, 2nd), 200y free (1:37.68, B), 100y back (47.24, B, 16th).
Dillon Connolly: 100y breast (53.00, B, 1st), 200y breast (1:56.84, B, 13th).
Richard Charlesworth: 500y free (4:17.88, B, 11th), 1650y free (14:58.03, B, 8th).
Alex Lendrum: 200y IM (1:46.79, B, 21st), 400y IM (3:53.34, B), 100y back (47.82, B, 25th), 200y back (1:42.29, B, 5th).
Emmett Walling: 50y free (20.02, 24th), 100y breast (54.13, B, 24th).
Jeff Daniels: 50y free (20.14, B).
Patrick White: 100y free (44.15, B), 200y free (1:36.04, B), 500y free (4:25.25, B), 100y fly (47.29, B, 20th).
Jack Wagner: 200y free (1:37.60, B), 200y IM (1:48.19, B).
Julian Bonse: 500y free (4:24.62, B), 1650y free (15:22.31, B).
Chase Bloch: 100y fly (47.78, B), 200y fly (1:46.90), 200y back (1:46.17, B).
Justin DiFederico: 200y fly (1:46.55, B).
Dimitri Colupaev: 100y free (44.04), 200y free (1:35.53, B), 100y breast (54.69, B).
* The Trojans have `A' cuts in the 400y and 800y free relays and B cuts in the 200y free relay and both medley relays. USC's 800y free relay (6:22.61) is ranked fifth in the nation while its 200y free relay (1:17.90) is tied for third and its 400y free relay (2:51.58) is ranked third. The 200y medley relay (1:26.88) is ranked eighth and the 400y medley relay (3:12.51) is 11th.

RECORDS
Numerous Trojan short course yards records have fallen this season. Freshman Vladimir Morozov has done early damage to USC's sprint records. He has lowered the 50y free record three times (now at 19.32) and the 100y free record four times (now at 42.06). He also helped take down USC's 200y free (1:17.90) and 400y free relays (2:51.58). Especially noteworthy was that until this fall, the 100y free and 400y free relay records had stood since 1990. Morozov also set USC pool record with a 19.71 in the 50y free and a 42.93 in the 100y free ... At the 2010 Short Course World Championships, sophomore Clement Lefert set USC records in the 100m fly (52.54) and the 200m free (1:44.82).

USC AT A GLANCE
The men's squad is coming off an 11th-place mark at the NCAAs, its third straight year of improvement at the national meet. It returns sophomore Clement Lefert, an individual finalist in the 500y free (third), as well as fellow All-Americans junior Patrick White and sophomore Nick Karpov, who joined the graduated Zoltan Povazsay as top-8 finishers in the 800y free (sixth).

NCAA individual scorers who return for the men include junior Richard Charlesworth (500y and 1650y free), junior Harrison Jones (1M, platform) and seniors Emmett Walling (100y breast) and Dillon Connolly (100y breast). Other NCAA participants returning are senior diver Steven Starks, junior Jeff Daniels and sophomore Alex Lendrum.

USC finished fifth at the Pac-10 Championships. Lefert, who won the 200y free, and White were each three-time finalists while Connolly was a double finalist.

TROJAN NEWCOMERS
Salo's staff welcomes one of the top incoming classes in the country, including freshmen Dimitri Colupaev, Chase Bloch, Nick Johnson, Vladimir Morozov, Sean Mulroy, Matthan Stroethoff, Matt Voell and John Wagner. Morozov, the fastest prep swimmer in the nation in 2010 who moved to the U.S. from Siberia three years ago, was named Swimming World's Male High School Swimmer of the Year in 2010. A former member of the Russian National team, He set national high school records in the 50y and 100y free at the 2010 CIF Southern Section Division III Championships and Masters. Colupaev, a German national team member, competed at the 2009 European Short Course Nationals, where he was a 100m and 200m free finalist. Bloch, a versatile swimmer, was one of the top American signings last year and a member of the 2010 U.S. Junior team, as was Wagner. Mulroy was a multiple Illinois state finalist while Johnson was a member of the 2010 World Youth Team.

SO FAR
The USC men's first action of the season came at the USC Invitational, where Troy swept Cal State Bakersfield in the traditional dual meet (111-85) and the sprint session (104-40). Freshman Vladimir Morozov won both the 50y and 100y free while sophomore Clement Lefert won the 200y free and 200y fly ... At the Trojan Diving Invitational, junior diver Harrison Jones swept all three boards ... In its first true dual meet action, the men's team lost to Arizona (110-190) before beating Arizona State (186-107). Senior Richard Charlesworth won a pair of races against the Wildcats, but the big news of the weekend came from Morozov, who broke a 20-year old USC record in USC's win over ASU. Morozov's record-breaking swim came in his leadoff of the 400y free relay, the final race of the meet. He clocked a 42.93, not only breaking a six-year old pool record of 43.59, but erasing Erik Ran's 1990 school record of 42.98. The opening swim led USC to a relay win of 2:57.42 ... USC had a huge meet at the 2010 U.S. Short Course Nationals, winning a combined 22 medals -- including 13 golds, six silvers and three bronze - and breaking records in a combined 13 events. Charlesworth won silvers in the 500y and 1650y free while Morozov won bronze in the 100y free and Lefert won bonze in the 200y free. Troy men also won the 200y, 400y and 800y free relays and won bronze in the 200y medley relay ... Troy finished the fall schedule with a win over UNLV, 155-98, which included two wins from sophomore Will Orlady. Morozov also won twice and set the pool record in the 50y free 19.71 ... The USC men swept UC Santa Barbara in a dual-meet doubleheader and then finished third at the SMU Swim Classic, where Morozov won the 50y and 100y free and the 100y back ... USC dropped its final two meets of the season, falling at California, 160-133, and Stanford, 162-116. Charlesworth won the 500y and 1000y free at Cal while Alex Lendrum won three races at Stanford.

HOZZSU, MOROZOV EARN NATIONAL SWIMMER OF WEEK HONORS
Katinka Hosszu and Vladimir Morozov earned Counsilman-Hunsaker National Collegiate Division I Swimmer-of-the-Week Honors after huge performances at the 2010 U.S. Short Course Nationals. Hosszu won three U.S. Short Course titles, claiming the 200 IM (1:53.47, NCAA "A" cut), 400 IM (4:00.03, NCAA "A" cut) and the 200 fly (1:51.45, NCAA "A" cut). All of her performances were school records, and the 400 IM time set a meet record. She was also part of USC's 800 free relay title and a school record in the 400 free relay, which finished second. Morozov broke USC's 50 and 100 free records three times at the U.S. Short Course Nationals, including on the lead off of the first-place 200 free relay (1:17.90, 19.44 lead-off split) and 400 free relay (2:51.58, 42.06 split). He finished third individually in the 100 free (42.12), and fourth in the 50 free (19.32).

SALO NAMED 2010 COACH OF THE YEAR
In its review of the 2010 international swim season, SwimNews.com named USC head coach Dave Salo as the world's Coach of the Year (women). In addition to his efforts with the Trojans, Salo's success includes his work with Trojan Swim Club, which features many of the top swimmers in the world, many of whom had big success in 2010, including Rebecca Soni and Jessica Hardy.

SALO INDUCTED INTO ASCA HALL OF FAME
Dave Salo joined join Jack Baurele, Bob Bowman, Jerry Holtrey and David Marsh as 2010 inductees into the American Swimming Coaches Association Hall of Fame at the ASCA's Annual Awards Banquet in Indianapolis Sept. 4. Salo has mentored numerous Olympic and World Championships medalists, All-Americans and NCAA champions during a career that has spanned more than 25 years. Among the Olympic medalists that Salo has coached are Rebecca Soni, Ous Mellouli, Larsen Jensen, Aaron Peirsol, Jason Lezak, Lenny Krayzelburg, Stacianna Stitts, Colleen Lanne, Amanda Beard and Gabe Woodward.

SALO NAMED PART OF U.S. STAFF AT SHORT COURSE WORLDS
Dave Salo served on the USA Swimming coaching staff as an assistant women's coach at the World Short Course Championships in Dubai, Dec. 15-19. The coaching assignment was the latest appointment for Salo in a long line of stints on U.S. national teams, including a head coach position at the 2005 World Championships.

Kevin Clements, NEW ASSISTANT COACH
Salo added a new assistant coach to the Trojan staff this spring, Kevin Clements, a 14-time NCAA All-American at Auburn and former American record holder who comes to USC after two years as an assistant at LSU and three years at Maryland. At USC, Clements will work with all groups but more extensively with the Trojans' freestylers and IM'ers. He will aid in the recruiting efforts for the women's team and brings with him a great deal of swimming knowledge ranging from his international experience to winning an NCAA team championship.

SONI NAMED U.S. FEMALE SWIMMER OF THE YEAR
Former USC NCAA champion and current Trojan volunteer assistant coach Rebecca Soni was named U.S. Female Athlete of the Year for the second year in a row, highlighting three awards she received at the seventh annual USA Swimming Foundation Golden Goggle Awards in New York on Monday (Nov. 22). In addition to winning Female Athlete of the Year, Soni took home the Female Race of the Year honor for her title-winning 200y breaststroke swim at the 2010 Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine. Soni also was part of the Relay Performance of the Year honoring the U.S. 4x100m medley relay win, also at the Pan Pacs.

(Less than a month after earning the 2010 U.S. Female Swimmer of the Year honor - and still within the 2010 calendar year - Soni swept the 50y, 100y and 200y breaststroke events at the Short Course World Championships. She also won a silver on the 400y medley relay, adding assurances to all of her voters that her Swimmer of the Year honor was sorely deserved.)