BERKELEY – California will compete for the first time in over a month when it welcomes rival Stanford to Spieker Aquatics Complex for the annual Triple Distance Meet on Friday afternoon.
Competition will start at 2 p.m. (PT). The Triple Distance Meet provides the unique opportunity to swim three distances of one stroke, with individuals racing at 50, 100 and 200 yards in each event. Distance freestylers will race the 200, 500 and 1,000 while IM specialists swim the 100, 200 and 400 IM. Both teams will also compete in a pair of relay events.
Meanwhile, freshman Nick Hart will represent the Bears’ divers at the Trojan Diving Invitational on Friday through Sunday in Los Angeles. The three-day event marks Cal’s first diving competition of the 2019-20 campaign.
LAST TIME OUT
Cal won all 14 events and ran away with a 187-74 victory over Pacific in its first dual meet of the season on Oct. 3 in Stockton. The Bears bookended the afternoon with victories in the 200-yard medley relay (1:29.62) and the 400-yard free relay (3:06.15) while seniors Ryan Hoffer and Zheng Wen Quah won two individual events each to highlight Cal’s well-rounded performance. Hoffer won both the 50 free (19.88) and 100 fly (47.96) while Quah took top times in the 200 free (1:34.91) and 200 IM (1:46.61).
Daniel Carr, Marcos Rico Peng, Pawel Sendyk and Kyle Millis set the tone with the 1:29.62 finish in the 200 medley relay, edging three other Cal groups that finished second, third and fourth. Peng, a freshman, later joined Ethan Young, Jarod Hatch and Calvin David in closing out the day with a win in the 400 free relay.
Bryce Mefford celebrated his 21st birthday with a 1:45.19 win the 200 back while Hugo Gonzalez was victorious in the 100 back (48.52). Reece Whitley and Jacques Laeuffer split the breaststroke events with Whitley topping the 100 in 53.19 and Laeuffer earning the 200 win in 2:00.37.
NCAA TITLES, 40 YEARS APART
Oct. 18 was a night of celebration for the Cal men’s swimming and diving program, as it recognized a pair of NCAA championship-winning teams separated by 40 years as part of Cal Athletics’ Student-Athlete Alumni Reunion Weekend in Berkeley. Cal’s 1979 team – which won the program’s first NCAA title – and 2019 team were both honored during a ceremony at California Memorial Stadium. As part of the ceremony, the 2019 team also received its NCAA championship rings.
TEN BEARS NAMED TO USA SWIMMING NATIONAL TEAM
Cal was well-represented when USA Swimming announced its 2019-20 U.S. National Team roster in early September. Ten Bears were included on the 115-individual roster, which is made up of the nation’s top six swimmers in each Olympic event. The Bears who made the roster are the following:
- Nathan Adrian
- Andrew Seliskar
- Nick Norman
- Ryan Murphy
- Bryce Mefford
- Josh Prenot
- Tom Shields
- Trenton Julian
- Sean Grieshop
- Jacob Pebley
#PROBEARS STAYING BUSY
Multiple Cal alumni – Nathan Adrian, Ryan Murphy, Tom Shields, Andrew Seliskar and Matt Josa – have competed for the International Swimming League’s (ISL) Los Angeles Current this fall, making trips to Lewisville, Texas and Budapest, Hungary. To follow along with Cal’s #ProBears and the LA Current, follow the team on Twitter.
NEXT TIME
The Bears will shift their focus to their final competitions of the 2019 calendar year as the divers travel to Austin, Texas for the Texas Diving Invitational on Nov. 21-23 and the swimmers make their way to Minneapolis, Minn. for the Minnesota Invitational on Dec. 4-7.
STAY POSTED
For complete coverage of Cal men’s swimming and diving, please follow the Bears on Twitter (@CalMenSwim), Instagram (@CalMenSwim) and Facebook (Facebook.com/CalMensSwimmingandDiving).
Since I live only 5 minutes from the Cal campus, I’ll be at the meet Friday and forward a little information that may be of interest to readers here like how is Hugo Gonzalez seems to be progressing, what Freshmen for both teams are showing so early on the meet schedule, and if any Cal/Stanford Olympians spectated the meet.
As you have read here on SwimSwam , the swim meet has an interesting format, but my experiences with Triple Distance Meets at Cal and Stanford have been kind of hard to follow swimming events having little break time between each event.
BTW, with two of Stanford’s best swimmers returning this year (Levant and Shouts) after missing last season, I would… Read more »
Well there were 20 different races not counting extra races to give every swimmer on the rosters a chance to race. So here we go:
(1) Cal raced all of their 31 swimmers; Stanford just 20.of 24 with Liang and Pastorek not competing.
(2) Stanford’s Levant took it easy in most of his races having come back from missing all of last season. Their best swimmer Grant Shoults eased in to his events 200, 500, 1000 losing to Cal’s Trenton Julian in the first 2 but really swam well winning the 1000 (9:06).
(3) Cal’s top swimmers Ryan Hoffer, Bryce Mefford, Wen Quah, ReeceWhitley, et al won all their races. Hugo Gonzalez raced well with a nice 400IM (3:48)).
I… Read more »