2026 Atlantic Coast Conference Championships
- Dates:
- Diving: Sunday, February 15–Tuesday, February 17
- Swimming: Tuesday, February 17–Saturday, February 21
- Location: McAuley Aquatic Center, Atlanta, GA
- Defending champions: UVA women (6x); Cal men (1x)
- Live Video: ESPN+ ($)
- Schedule of Events (PDF)
- Championship Central
- Pre-Scratch Psych Sheet
- Live Results
- Live Recaps
The 2026 Cal men are not as strong at the top end, nor as deep as they once were, but ultimately class rises to the top, and the Golden Bears showed up biggest when it was most needed to win their 2nd ACC title in as many years in the conference.
They finished 78 points ahead of their closest competitors from Stanford, with their individual swimming scoring being the difference maker.
Final Scores Men
| Team | Total | Individual Swim Points | Relay Points | Diving Points | Individual Score Count | Relay Score Count | Diving Score Count | |
| 1 | California | 1154 | 766 | 280 | 108 | 39 | 5 | 6 |
| 2 | Stanford | 1076 | 681 | 265 | 130 | 40 | 5 | 7 |
| 3 | NC State | 973 | 735 | 238 | 0 | 34 | 4 | 0 |
| 4 | Louisville | 844 | 495 | 244 | 105 | 33 | 5 | 7 |
| 5 | VA Tech | 715.5 | 404.5 | 238 | 73 | 29 | 5 | 8 |
| 6 | Florida St | 624.5 | 262.5 | 272 | 90 | 21 | 5 | 8 |
| 7 | Virginia | 577.5 | 374.5 | 203 | 0 | 28 | 4 | 0 |
| 8 | UNC | 572.5 | 325.5 | 142 | 105 | 25 | 4 | 9 |
| 9 | ND | 488 | 257 | 166 | 65 | 21 | 4 | 4 |
| 10 | SMU | 407 | 121 | 190 | 96 | 15 | 5 | 6 |
| 11 | PITT | 401 | 144 | 214 | 43 | 11 | 5 | 4 |
| 12 | GT | 357 | 82 | 172 | 103 | 9 | 5 | 5 |
| 13 | Miami | 162 | 0 | 0 | 162 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| 14 | Duke | 138 | 12 | 120 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 1 |
| 15 | BC | 112 | 0 | 112 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
It was the newcomers who made the difference for Cal. Including Nathan Wiffen, who is probably in his only year of eligibility for Cal, the ‘freshman’ class scored 297 points for the Golden Bears. Not only was that the most by any ‘freshman’ class, it was the most of any Cal class. As the Golden Bears enter a rebuilding phase, their ‘class by class’ scoring is inverse.
- Freshmen (including Wiffen) – 297
- Sophomore – 189
- Junior – 148
- Senior – 140
- 5th Years – 100
While Cal’s sprint group held their own without the talent they normally have, it’s the distance crew that carried the most weight for the Golden Bears. They only had one individual finish among the first 19 individual scorers at the meet – freshman Ryan Erisman, who finished 3rd in the 500 free (4:11.50), 2nd in the 400 IM (3:38.94), and 3rd in the 1650 free (14:37.58).
Wiffen added another 53 points with a 5th place finish in the 500 free and 2nd place finish in the 1650 free, while senior Eduardo Oliveira scored 44 points and freshman Norvy Clontz scored 22 points in that distance group as well.
It was scoring from a number of unusual places that carried Cal. They also picked up big scoring in the breaststroke races and from a resurgent 5th year Evan Petty who wasn’t even on the ACC Championship roster last season.
Cal’s Individual Scoring
- Ryan Erisman, freshman – 82 points
- Yamato Okadome, sophomore – 64 points
- Josh Thai, senior – 63 points (diving)
- Evan Petty, 5th year – 56 points
- Keaton Jones, junior – 54 points
- Lucca Battaglini, sophomore – 53 points
- Freddy Klein, sophomore – 53 points
- Hank Rivers, senior – 50 points
- Casper Puggaard, freshman – 50 points
- Ian Platts-Mills, freshman – 48 points
- Humberto Najera, junior – 47 points
- Eduardo Oliveira, 5th year – 44 points
- Martin Wrede, freshman – 42 points
- Geoff Vavitsas, junior – 42 points (diving)
- Luca Gissendaner, senior – 27 points
- Norvy Clontz, freshman – 22 points
- Nans Mazellier, sophomore – 19 points
- Jack Clark, junior – 3 points (diving)
- Sam Quarles, junior – 2 points
- Kenny Barnicle, freshman
Cal’s Yamato Okadome was named the 2026 ACC Most Valuable Men’s Swimmer of the Championships after winning the 100 and 200 breaststrokes and swimming the breaststroke leg of the winning 400 medley relay.
Those were three of Cal’s four event titles at the meet.
Cal’s ACC Titles
- 100 breaststroke – Yamato Okadome, sophomore – 50.32
- 200 breaststroke – Yamato Okadome, sophomore – 1:48.87
- 100 backstroke – Evan Petty, 5th year – 44.21
- 400 medley relay – Evan Petty, Yamato Okadome, Casper Puggaard, Martin Wrede – 3:0.74 (Meet Record)
This is head coach Dave Durden’s 9th conference title with Cal. He won 7 Pac-12 titles before Cal joined the ACC, and have now won two straight in his new conference.
He becomes the 8th coach in ACC history to win multiple men’s titles outright and the 9th coach in ACC history to win multiple men’s titles including ties.
ACC Men’s Swimming & Diving Championships By Coach
- Mark Bernardino, Virginia – 16
- Don Easterling, NC State – 15
- Frank Comfort, UNC – 10
- Willis Case, NC State – 9 (1 tie, 2 tri-tie)
- Braden Holloway, NC State – 9
- Bill Campbell, Maryland – 7 (1 tie, 2 tri-tie)
- Pat Earey, UNC – 5 (1 tie, 2 tri-tie)
- Ralph Casey, UNC – 2 (1 tie)
- Dave Durden, Cal – 2
Durden has proved me wrong. Great coach and you know the bears will show up at NCs and inevitably overperform. If they had brooks curry last year or no CG for texas, it was a sure ring
But the international mercenary stuff is insufferable and ill keep calling that out as i see fit
They would not have won this meet without the international mercenaries. With that said, the development of the domestic freshman was good.
W take, Andrew. I actually agree with you on the international mercenary stuff.
@Riccardo what do you consider an “international mercenary”? In my book, only Wiffen applies (along with Tomac and Henveaux in prior years). The other internationals (Okadome, Wrede, Puggaard, etc.) are legitimate 4year college kids.
Cal won by 78 points and Wiffen had 53 (and wasn’t on any relays) so they would have won regardless.
Moraes is not a full on mercenary but he was not developed at Cal and neither was Wiffen.
Petty had a phenomenal meet for them as a 5th year but I have no issue with that because it is 100% development.
This is such a false distinction. By that logic, anyone that’s fast in high school but doesn’t drop in college shouldn’t count because they didn’t develop at their college? How does that make sense?
Moraes spent 4 years at Michigan, Wiffen has spent the last several years essentially as a profesional. These guys are should not be some badge of honor for the Cal coaching staff.
Buddy just gets on here and lies for no reason😭😭😭
Take away Wiffen and Moraes points and they do not win. Neither of those athletes were developed at Cal.
Moraes wasn’t at Michigan for 4 years?
So Moraes developed at Michigan but Bob/Texas gets all the credit for Baylor Nelson? Come on dude.
Im not super familiar with either but didn’t Baylor nelson drop a lot of time under bob?
I think I responded to the wrong comment, to me it looked like the “gets on here and lies for no reason” comment was under “the Moraes spent 4 years at Michigan”
But also, Moraes no best times at Cal, meanwhile Baylor’s dropped more in a season then the last 3
He’s literally gone ALL best times at Cal.
PBs in the 200 / 500 / 1650 this year.
Take away the mercenaries and they are nowhere close to Texas last year ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
(you were of course always wrong about Durden)
Moraes is a transfer that has spent 4 years in college in the US, not as a pro. How is he any different from Chaney at ASU or Baylor Nelson at Texas?
If we’re going to exclude transfers from “counting” in your mind then Texas would barely have a team.
I was talking about NC’s last year: Tomac and Henveaux brought a lot of individual (and relay) points. Moraes is cool.
Yes, fair. I agree with that.
Take just one mercenary from Texas last year (Chris Giuliano) and Cal wins the meet.
He was their only mercenary. Cal had more. Simple.
pretty impressive that Miami didnt get last place , even though they have 0 swimmers on roster
Pack come out on top at nattys. Elite freestyle relays and winkler and McCarthy to score big points.
I dropped some acid, now Berkeley CA is on the Atlantic coast, guys did I permanently screw up my brain?
Braden – FYI Wiffen isn’t a freshman. He’s listed as a grad student on the Cal website. “5th Year” is probably the more appropriate designation.
https://calbears.com/sports/mens-swimming-and-diving/roster/nathan–wiffen/27122
All the results listed him as a freshman, but I was also thinking 5th year
Really impressive performance from the bears.
Let’s do it again soon
Savage Seventh!
before long Durden will be at the top of that list
Nice thought but does Durden have 15 more seasons in him?
isn’t he in his 40s?
says he’s 49. Don’t see why he can’t go until 64
Damn I stand corrected. For some reason I thought he was significantly older.
Don’t let him see this lol
I thought that until recently too, maybe because he’s been kicking butt for so long haha
I’ve never gotten the sense that Durden was a ‘coach until you die on deck’ kind of guy. I think he’s more of a “coach until my pension vests then I’m going golfing while I still can” kind of guy.
I think in the world of NIL, we’re going to see fewer swim coaches (or NCAA coaches in general) stick around until the very end. That whole deal will make it feel more like a job and less like a passion project you get paid for.