The California Golden Bears were overpowering Friday night, knocking off the visiting Wisconsin Badgers in a pair of duals.
The Badgers have been sneaky-good this year, especially on the men’s side, where they’ve beaten Arizona and Minnesota, both on the road. There seemed a chance they could give Cal a fight in a few events, but on this night, the defending NCAA champs were way too locked in. The Golden Bear men swept every event, going 1-2-3 in six of them to crush Wisconsin.
Meanwhile on the women’s side, Cal was nearly as dominant. Though they simply couldn’t find the antidote anywhere on their deep roster for Ivy Martin, the Bears were never in much danger as a team and were already exhibitioning by the 200 back, just 9 events into a 16-event meet.
Women’s Meet
Perhaps the race of the night was the 100 free, where Wisconsin’s best swimmer, U.S. National Teamer Ivy Martin, went toe-to-toe with American Olympic hero Missy Franklin of Cal. The sprint freestyles are Martin’s bread and butter, and though Franklin is at her best in backstroke, she’s no slouch in the 100 free – in fact, she was 3rd at last year’s NCAA Championships.
Martin won the intense battle, though, pressing out to a three-tenth lead at the 50-mark and holding on to win by just .07. Neither time was spectacular (Martin was 49.13, Franklin 49.20), but it was still an outstanding race between two elite talents in the thick of tough training.
Franklin was coming off a win in the 100 back, where she went 54.36 and led a 1-2-3 sweep for the Cal ladies. Though she wound up swimming all freestyle last postseason, there’s a good chance Franklin moves into at least one backstroke race for what’s expected to be her last collegiate season. She looked good in this 100 back, and really wasn’t challenged at all.
Martin, meanwhile, was unstoppable in her other event, the 100 fly. She went 53.93 in that race to blow out Cal’s tough Canadian freshman Noemie Thomas.
Elizabeth Pelton also won twice for Cal. The junior was a quick 1:47.58 to win the 200 free easily, another 1-2-3 sweep for Cal. Pelton would come back to win the 200 back in 1:54.58, and by that point, Cal was exhibitioning most of its swimmers.
The Bears also got three solid individual swims, two of them wins, from sophomore Marina Garcia. She swept the breaststrokes, going 1:02.93 and 2:15.79. In a unique event combo, Garcia’s third individual race was the 1000 free, where she took second overall in 10:08.17.
The Cal women are notoriously weak in distance free, though, and Wisconsin’s Jenny Holtzen took full advantage. The junior won that 1000 easily in 10:01.84, and came back to triumph in a very tight 500 free battle. She trailed Cal’s Catherine Breed for most of the race, but took over at the 400-mark and closed to the wall first in 4:52.15. Breed was 4:52.23.
Wisconsin won two more tight battle in both relays. The team of Annie Tamblyn, Anna Meinholz, Martin and Chase Kinney went 1:41.30 to nip Cal by a few tenths in the 200 medley and grab an early points lead. That was headed by a nice 23.31 fly split from Martin, plus a 22.76 anchor leg from Kinney to hold off a charging Franklin and Farida Osman on the two Cal relays.
Osman won the individual 50 for Cal, going 23.14 to top Kinney.
Wisconsin also won the 400 free relay, going 3:23.85, led by a 49.30 leadoff split from Martin.
The visitors swam much better than the score indicates. It seemed like most of the close races broke in Wisconsin’s favor, but the Badgers just didn’t have the all-around firepower to run with Cal in the points. The Bears were too deep and too talented, and basically every event that wasn’t a Badger touchout was a dominating Cal sweep.
Noemie Thomas won the 200 fly, going 2:00.98, and that was yet another 1-2-3 California sweep. Celina Li took the 400 IM late in 4:21.14, but that was well after the meet was already in hand. Also helping the cause was Anne Kastler, who swept the diving events for the home team.
That added up to a 161-124 win for Cal, which gets back in the win column after dropping a big meet to Texas last weekend.
Men’s Meet
The Cal men didn’t make things nearly as interesting. The Bears were locked in from the get-go, not dropping a single event, and taking the top three spots in nearly half of the races.
Things were lopsided from the get-go. The Bears put up the nation’s third-fastest time to win the 200 medley relay – after they split their top swimmers between their two best relays.
Ryan Murphy, Connor Hoppe, Justin Lynch and Henry Chung were the winners, going a 1:27.28 that’s three tenths away from leading the NCAA. Murphy was his usual dominant self on backstroke, going 21.65, and also impressive was the 21.29 butterfly leg for the freshman Lynch.
The Bears’ second team had the faster breaststroker and freestyler. Senior Chuck Katis was 24.24 on breaststroke and Tyler Messerschmidt anchored in 19.65. (Though Henry Chung continued his strong run of swimming with a 19.75 on the A relay. He seems like a big-time player so far this year).
With the four fastest legs on one relay, Cal would’ve been 1:27.75, tops in the nation by two tenths.
Maybe most impressive for Cal individually was Josh Prenot. We’ve always known the junior was versatile, but he popped off a win in the 1000 free that many might not have expected. Prenot, typically an IMer and breaststroker, was 9:16.51 to just beat senior Adam Hinshaw as the Bears went 1-2-3 over the top of Wisconsin’s Matt Hutchins, who’s one of the top distance freestylers in the nation this season, sitting 6th in the nation in the 1000.
Prenot went back to what we know him for at the end of the meet, leading another 1-2-3 charge in the 400 IM. His 3:52.50 won by three second, though the event was exhibitioned.
Murphy was all but untouchable, as he’s been basically since showing up as a freshman last fall. He won the 100 back in 47.20, not far off his nation-leading time. That was an easy win over Wisconsin’s Drew teDuits, a former NCAA champ and one of the nation’s better backstrokers.
Murphy also won the 100 free, going 43.78 that moves him to 4th in the NCAA in what’s essentially an off-event for him.
Without Murphy, the reigning national champ, in the 200 back, Cal still came out on top. Junior Jacob Pebley picked up the slack, going 1:44.90 to beat teDuits – this race was a barn-burner, with Pebley leading by just .05 at the halfway point and ultimately triumphing by just three tenths.
Katis doubled in the breaststrokes. His 54.37 in the 100 was especially impressive, and he was also 2:01.42 in the 200. Second in the 100 was freshman Connor Hoppe, who was also fast with a 54.82 – Cal’s breaststroke group was a big liability early on last year, but the depth seems to be coming around much more this season.
A couple other freshmen made waves. Ryan Kao put up the fastest time in the 500 free, though that was the first event where Cal started exhibitioning. Kao was 4:28.05, easily beating Wisconsin’s Nick Caldwell, who’s been outstanding so far this season. In fact, that race was a 1-2-3 sweep for Cal over Caldwell.
In the next race, Kyle Gornay took home the title. His 100 fly time of 48.91 was the clear winning swim, with no one else under 50 seconds.
Cal’s diving duo split the wins, with freshman Finn Scribbick winning on 1-meter and junior Peter Cyr taking 3-meter.
The home team capped off its dominance by going 1-2-3 in the 400 free relay to end the meet (though of course only two relays can score and all three were exhibitioned). They spread most of their studs out among those three relays, but the fastest splits came from Murphy (43.68 on the A), Long Gutierrez (44.07 on the B) and Seth Stubblefield (44.08 on the A). The winning team was 2:56.55, 4th in the NCAA.
Gutierrez also won individually. He paced the 200 free, going 1:36.56 and rising to 4th in the nation. Cal also got back-to-back 1-2-3 sweeps of the 200 fly and 50 free. Will Hamilton and freshman Justin Lynch tied atop the 200 fly in 1:46.45, and Tyler Messerschmidt won the 50 free with a 20.03.
That led to a 169-116 Cal win.
I think there is a problem in the “culture” of swimming that idealizes the college experience too much. “Swimming in college is the greatest experience you will ever have and if you don’t do it, you will really regret it one day.” That kind of thing. And I think that affects decisions, like we have seen with Missy and Katie. They don’t want to feel like they are missing out on something. Hopefully it will help some with the increasing number of voices like myself and others in the “swimming community” that say, “No, swimming in college is not the greatest thing in the world. It is ok to skip it.”
The past two years have been bad for… Read more »
I don’t have a problem with Missy going to college and get her education. My problem for her is that competing in college for Cal = huge mistake. And now she’s getting injured, heck for the very first time she injured her back!!!! I mean 500 free? I just can’t believe that Terri is allowing this. LOL. That to me is telling. She doesn’t need to compete in college. You can go on and on about team spirit or the college competition experience but at the end of the day you will regret it.
Going to Cal when they’re loaded was a bad thing. You’re not a priority. You have no time to develop especially for Rio. Like what… Read more »
It’s not normal to have an Olympic gold medal guaranteed 2 years before it begins.. You have this weird idea that just because she won two individual gold medals in 2012, she automatically reserved them for 4 years later. How many swimmers can you then predict to get an individual gold medal in Rio? With 2 years more to go til Rio, your predictions mean pretty much nothing. Did you predict Missy to win 4 Olympic gold medals two years before the London Olympics?
Also, I believe Missy got her back spasms first in Pan Pacs swimming backstroke. Correlation has nothing to do with causation. I really don’t think the fact that Missy decided to swim in college had… Read more »
Let’s make a bet, if she wins an individual gold in Kazan I will forever disappear on this site. But if she doesn’t then you know going to Cal and compete in college = huge mistake and you will admit it.
hahaha I don’t want you to disappear forever. Swimswam wouldn’t be the same without you. If Missy doesn’t win any gold at Kazan, I will admit that she could’ve been better prepared for world championships in 2015 by going pro.
However, I believe that the college experience at Cal lasts forever. Sure, maybe she can earn an online degree. If she were to turn pro, she would have even less time to spend on academics. Even if she could actually attend a legit college after being out of education for 4-8 years, her experience both academically and socially wouldn’t be the same when she’s trying to study and hang out with 18 year olds while she is approaching 30.… Read more »
I thought the men shined yesterday and the women were dismal for the most part. Maybe getting their NCAA rings for men was the motivating factor…..and the women were just jealous and sulking because they went from favorites to win to third place. Just guessing….but the men were definitely on their game and the women….weren’t
are you talking about how much more dominant the men were against wisconsin? or are you talking about performance in terms of how fast they were?
I don’t know what times are considered good for women at this point of the season, but Wisconsin women are better than the men’s side.
At this dual meet, the men were swimming faster for them then the women were against Wisc. The Wisc men are probably better than their women. They have 3 solid NCAA qualifiers (and a NCAA champ), where the women only have Ivy and that is about it.
I think Missy made a great decision going to Cal for two years, then going pro. She’s trying new training methods (and more importantly, having a life at 19 years old!). After this season she’ll have a year to focus on the Olympics, and it will be up to her (not Schmitz, not McKeever) how she wants to prepare.
Look at the counterfactual: if Missy went pro out of high school and stayed in CO.
Most people aren’t and shouldn’t be Michael Phelps. They can’t spend that age singly focused on an event that happens once every four years.
Maybe she’d burn out doing the same practices, with the same coach, in the same snowy town while all… Read more »
I don’t know… I was among those who thought Missy should go professional.
And I still think that she should have.
Missy has that very rare combination of great athlete and commercial marketability.
In the past two years she may have missed at least millions of dollars from winning prizes, sponsorship and endorsements. She could have still gone to college while earning those millions of dollars.
I don’t understand this american understanding that you cannot train to swim, go to college, and earn money at the same time.
But I guess MIssy values team training and competition and NCAA experience more than millions of dollars. And that is absolutely valid. Different person has different values for… Read more »
“I don’t understand this american…. that you cannot train to swim, go to college, and earn money at the same time.” I’m an American and let me tell you, I wish I could give you a good reason but there isn’t one. Just some snooty people in charge like to be able to sit back and watch an NCAA event and say to themselves, “Ah, this is PURE sport with no dirty money involved.” But what it is really doing is hurting athletes like Missy and Katie and others. It’s so bad Missy had to worry that a gift from a pop singer could potentially harm her eligibility. She actually had to mail the t-shirt back, or whatever it was.… Read more »
One thing to consider here: I was at the Texas-Cal dual last week. (Fun meet, even in the rain.) Missy was helped to the locker room after the 500 free, apparently suffering from back spasms again. She definitely was in some distress. This seems to be an ongoing issue she’s having to work through. At the very least, perhaps it weighs on her mentally. Missy looked like she was having a blast up to that moment.
I thought Missy looked way too cautious yesterday during her swims. Hadn’t heard about another recent back spasm, but that would help explain it. Different injury, but Catherine Breed also swam tentatively last season while recovering from a knee injury. Breed looks like she’s fully recovered and Teri wouldn’t have had her swim the 200 fly yesterday if she weren’t. Teri’s keeping Missy in more predicable events (100 back, 100 free) because she’s not right yet. Don’t really look at times too much at this point, but Pelton and Marina Garcia looked extremely confident in all their swims yesterday.
Pretty slow times again compared to other colleges at this point in the season…
Franklin used to be good but I think Ledecky deserves recognition as the greatest female US swimmer nowadays!
“Franklin used to be good but I think Ledecky deserves recognition as the greatest female US swimmer nowadays!”
Hehehe… are there only two categories of swimmers?
1. The greatest swimmer in the US
2. Not good
Well POL were you at the meet in Berkeley? I was again, and I can tell you Missy is doing what she had hoped for coming out of high school: Swimming at college and enjoying it, joining team mates she has known for years and making new friends. She is not “down” and always happy on the deck. That’s Missy!
People should not worry about her backstroke or free times this time of the year. Having a 47.0 in the 50 free, 1:40 in the 200 free, a 4:32 in the 500 free as a Frosh along with very good backstroke times are indicative of her great talent in the water.
Not all great swimmers necessarily get better and better… Read more »
Great dual meet from Cal Women & Men. Not especially fast times all around but both teams showed solid swims and wins. Many of them on both sides are still showing fatigue and are clearly in need of taper. I trust Teri and Dave to figure out the best taper
And to the people who say “Teri destroyed Missy”, “Missy is done”, “Missy should drop the 500 and stick to backstroke” or all the silliness related to that. I’d like to ask you a question, have you ever been a competitive swimmer, who’s been thrown in the light of sport at an early age, committed to swim for one of the best colleges in the world, left your family… Read more »