Junior Reed Malone took home his second individual title of the meet on Friday, becoming the seventh Trojan in a row to win the 200y free. Following his teammates' lead, sophomore Ralf Tribuntsov then won USC's first 100y back title in nearly 20 years, reaching the wall just .15 ahead of the next-fastest swimmer. Two Trojans - Alex Valente and Carsten Vissering - finished second in their respective events, while USC's 400y medley relay team also finished second to close the third day of competition just .25 seconds too slow to defend their title in the event.
On Saturday, freshman Patrick Mulcare (below) secured USC's first 200y back title in nearly two decades while junior Steven Stumph repeated as 200y breast champion to round out the group of successful Pac-12 title-winning Trojan swimmers.
"We knew winning this year was going to be a tough battle and it certainly was," said head coach Dave Salo after the meet. "Overall, a second-place finish in the Pac-12 is certainly something to be proud of. When we started this season we were tabbed as no better than 20th in the country. Along the way we showed that we certainly are a much better team than many expected."
The Trojans now turn their attention to the NCAA Championships, held March 24-26 in Atlanta.
