The University of California Golden Bear men took on California State University Bakersfield Roadrunners today in Bakersfield on Senior Day. It ended up being a tight finish, with Cal triumphing 119-113, despite Cal winning all but one of the individual swimming events (which they would’ve won had they not swum exhibition).
Cal had 8 different individual event winners. They started off the meet going 1-2 in the 200 medley relay, with Ryan Murphy, Andrew Seliskar, Josh Prenot and Trent Williams combining to go 1:29.55. The B team was close behind in 1:29.72, and Cal State was a distant 3rd in 1:35.37.
Janardan Burns took the first individual event of the meet, winning the 1000 yard free in 9:21.30, just out-touching his California teammate Ken Takahashi (9:21.57). Jacob Pebley then cruised to victory in the 200 free (1:38.30), defeating 2nd place by nearly five seconds. Nick Norman (1:43.19) made it a 1-2 finish for the Bears.
Dillon Williams kept Cal’s win streak alive, taking the 50 free in 21.05, just ahead of Cal State’s Seth Knights (21.34). After that, two of Cal’s best went head-to-head, as Ryan Murphy and Andrew Seliskar went to battle in the 200 IM. Murphy triumphed, 1:48.17 to 1:48.99, on the power of strong backstroke and freestyle splits. After falling behind on the back, Seliskar’s 31.34 breast split brought him nearly even with Murphy, before Murphy finished the job on the freestyle, out splitting Seliskar 25.31 to 25.94.
The diving break came and Cal had a monstrous lead. Luckily for the Roadrunners, the Golden Bears didn’t have any divers and they could make up some ground. Cal State went 1-2-3 in the 1-meter event, with Brayden Greenwald taking the event with a score of 264.90.
Cal picked up right where they left off once swimming action resumed, as they won four straight events. Justin Lynch took the 200 fly (1:48.66), Tyler Messerschmidt won the 100 free (45.93), Josh Prenot the 200 back (1:47.71), and Trent Williams the 500 free (4:32.98). Cal went 1-2 in all but the 100 free.
In the second diving break, Bakersfield’s Terrell Mauldin took the win on the 3-meter with a score of 307.57.
In the final two events, Cal swam exhibition. Jake Chir of Cal State won the 200 breaststroke in 2:11.08, despite Andrew Seliskar throwing down an exhibition 2:03.10. The meet finished up with the Roadrunners going 1:25.13 to win the 200 free relay, with Cal’s exhibition squad going 1:23.97.
The Roadrunners will compete in Houston, TX at the WAC Championships Feburary 24-27, while Cal will swim at the Pac-12 Championships March 2-5 in Federal Way, WA.
What exactly does exhibition mean? And did seliskar do it if the meet was close?
*why did
let me clarify – it works on my phone, but not on various computers.
Whenever meet result link is at the top of the article it doesn’t work – weird, I know, but it’s been that way for a while now.