Cal Men Open Season In Annual King of the Pool Meet

Courtesy: Cal Athletics

BERKELEY – The California men’s swimming & diving team looks to reclaim its place as national champions while extending its current streak of 14 consecutive top-two finishes as the 2024-25 season begins at Cal Poly in the annual King of the Pool duel in San Luis Obispo on Friday. Friday’s meet is scheduled to start at 12 p.m. at the Anderson Aquatics Center.

The unique pentathlon meet will feature each swimmer participating in five 100-yard races, including butterfly, breaststroke, individual medley, backstroke, and freestyle. The swimmer with the best combined time from each school will be crowned King of the Pool.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20
Cal at Cal Poly | 12 p.m. PT | Anderson Aquatics Center | San Luis Obispo, Calif.
Live Stream: None
Live Results: None

LAST TIME IN THE POOL
Last time out, Cal secured a second-place finish at the 2024 NCAA Championships with a team score of 444.5, which marked 14 consecutive years with top two finishes. Eleven Golden Bears earned All-American honors last season, including a pair of divers for the first time in Director of Swimming & Diving Dave Durden’s 17 years as head coach. Cal claimed national titles in several events, including the 800-yard freestyle relay, 200-yard IM, 200 backstroke and 100-yard breaststroke.

The Bears set the NCAA, meet, U.S Open, pool and program records with a time of 6:02.26 in the 800 free relay with the cadre of Gabriel Jett, Destin Lasco, Jack Alexy and Robin Hanson. Lasco took home the 200-yard individual medley title after setting the American record with a time of 1:37.91 while also setting the American, NCAA, U.S Open, pool and program record in winning his third consecutive 200-yard backstroke championship with a time of 1:35.37. Liam Bell set an American, U.S Open, NCAA, meet and program record to claim the national title in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 49:53.

HOW IT FEELS TO BE KING
Over the last 13 years of the King of the Pool meet between Cal and Cal Poly, eight different Bears have been crowned. The previous winners include Marcin Tarczynski (2010-12), Ryan Murphy (2013), Will Hamilton (2014), Matthew Josa (2017), Andrew Seliskar (2018), Zheng Quah (2019), Hugo Gonzalez (2021), and Destin Lasco (2022-23).

WELCOME BACK
Cal returns 30 student-athletes from a season ago, 11 of whom have earned All-American honors in their careers, including Jack Alexy, Robin Hanson, Matthew Jensen, Gabriel Jett, Keaton Jones, Tyler Kopp, Destin Lasco, Dare Rose, Bjorn Seeliger, Joshua Thai, Geoffrey Vavitsas.