Cal’s Humberto Najera Blasts 1:38.02 200 Back at Cal Last Chance, 4th Fastest in NCAA this Season

Cal Last Chance Meet

• February 27- March 1, 2026
• Spieker Aquatics Complex, Berkeley, CA
• SCY (25 yards)
• “Cal Last Chance Meet” on Meet Mobile

In-state foes Cal and Stanford met for one last championship-qualifying meet for the 2025-2026 season, with the Golden Bears hosting a Last Chance meet in Berkeley. Among the performances at the Spieker Aquatics Complex, Cal’s Humberto Najera took over a full second off of his 200 backstroke career best to become the #4 performer in the NCAA this season in 1:38.02.

Najera, coming off of an ACC Championships where he finished 6th in the 200 back (1:40.62), fired out of the gates in 47.82, nearly a second better than his ACCs performance (where he took it out in 48.67). The final two 50s were each more than eight-tenths better than what he did at ACCs (25.01/25.19 to 25.94/26.01). Overall, this time beats his 2025 NCAA Championships prelims performance of 1:39.30; he went on to finish 13th overall (1:39.54). This season, Najera only logged one sub-1:40 time, with this one nearly cracking the 1:38 barrier. He only sits behind Florida’s Jonny Marshall (1:36.38), Texas’ Hubert Kos (1:36.80), and Alabama’s Tommy Hagar (1:38.02) this season.

Cal’s Mia West stood out with a massive 20.63 split on the Golden Bear women’s 200 free relay. West came in as the 2nd leg of the relay, following Mary-Ambre Moluh‘s 21.76 opening split. Her 20.63 ties Claire Curzan for the 15th-fastest relay split in history. West is coming off of an ACC championships where she won the 200 fly in 1:51.52, a time that ranks 5th in the NCAA this season. Her fastest 50 free came in December at the Minnesota Invitational, in 22.14, making this split a second and a half faster than her fastest flat-start 50 free.

The rest of that relay was made up of Teagan O’Dell (21.52) and Sydney Griscavage (21.76), as the Cal quartet combined in 1:25.67, marking the 5th fastest 200 free relay in the country this season and the 5th team under 1:26 this season.

Both Kathryn Hazle and Alexa McDevitt each moved up in the NCAA rankings in the women’s 400 IM for Cal. Hazle swam her first best time in this event in three years, previously holding a best time of 4:07.44 from November of 2022, dipping under 4:07 for the first time in 4:06.54. over a second and a half from her season best of 4:08.27 from last week’s ACC Championships. Hazle now moves up to the 25th fastest time in the NCAA this season.

McDevitt finished just behind Hazle in 4;07.29, continuing her rapid growth in the event since joining the program in the fall, having entered with a pre-Cal best of 4:12.57 from February of 2024. Her time here tops the 4:08.21 season best from the Minnesota Invite in December and makes her the 31st-fastest performer this season.

Stanford also had a nice 1-2 punch of their own; both Alana Berlin and Levenia Sim each climbed the women’s 100 back national rankings and into the top 30. Berlin swam the fastest time of her freshman season in 51.40, marking just her 3rd time under 52 in her college career. She has been as fast as 51.33, which would rank 28th, but her current time still sits 29th.

Sim is directly behind Berlin in 30th, 0.06 seconds slower, in 51.46. That time is more than three tenths faster than her fastest this season, which came at ACCs last week in 51.78, yet still does not match her near five-year best time of 51.03 from the NCSA Junior National Championships in March of 2021.

Cal’s Zachary Tan turned in his first-ever sub-52-second time in 51. Moving him into a precarious tie for 33rd in the NCAA this season. Last season, the cutline sat at 29th, with that time being 51.58. There is a strong possibility of some movement ahead of him, which may just do enough to sneak him in to the NCAA Championships.