FEDERAL WAY, Wash. – Junior Margo Geer claimed her fifth title of the meet and freshman Rafael Quintero won the platform diving competition to lead Arizona on the final day of the Pac-12 Women's Swimming Championships and Men's and Women's Diving Championships at Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center on Saturday.
“I’m really proud of the all the women’s swimmers and the men’s and women’s divers,” UA coach Eric Hansen said. “I felt like we got a lot accomplished this week and I feel like we are ready for NCAAs with a little more rest. Congratulations to Rafael for his accomplishment of winning as a freshman on the tower. It has been a great season so far, but now is the fun part, and we really look forward to it.”
The final day started off strong for the Wildcats, with Quintero winning the platform diving competition in impressive fashion. Quintero finished with a score of 399.90 to just hold off 2012 Olympic medalist Kristian Ipsen (398.40) of Stanford and All-American Harrison Jones (392.00) of Arizona State. Quintero became just the seventh Arizona male to ever earn a Pac-12 title in the platform event. He also became the first Wildcat to win the platform as a freshman since Arizona diving coach Omar Ojeda won it in 2001.
Quintero’s victory was not the only one of the night for the Wildcats, as Margo Geer swam to victory in the 100 free with a time of 47.59. Geer, who has the top time nationally in the event with a 47.16 from back in November, outlasted Maddy Schaefer (47.85) of Stanford for the title. Geer’s victory is the first for the Wildcats in the 100 free since Lacey Nymeyer (48.20) won the event in 2008. Geer was a part of five Pac-12 titles this week. Megan Lafferty also qualified for the finals and turned in a solid fifth place performance with a time of 48.74.
In an exciting 400 free relay to close out the event, Cal posted a winning time of 3:12.37 to edge Arizona. The Wildcats finished just .05 seconds behind at 3:12.42. However, Arizona concluded the championships with three relay titles.
The Wildcats finished fourth in the team standings with 1128.5 points. Stanford won the team title with 1439.5 points followed by USC with 1418.5 points and Cal with 1333.5. UCLA rounded out the top five with 998.5 followed by Arizona State (786.5), Utah (347), Oregon State (297) and Washington State (189).
The Pac-12 Men's Swimming Championships begin Sunday with the 200 medley relay and the 800 free relay, and the NCAA Championships begin on March 21. Meanwhile,
