Division II NCAA standout Matthew Josa will be transferring to the University of California for his remaining two seasons of college eligibility, beginning this fall.
Josa starred for Queens University in the NCAA”s Division II for two seasons, but sat out this past year on an Olympic redshirt, training with SwimMAC Carolina. In the meantime, news broke that Josa was seeking a transfer to Division I, with Cal, Texas, Missouri and Louisville all rumored as possible destinations.
This week, SwimMAC coach David Marsh confirmed that Josa would be transferring to Cal, passing along a statement from Josa:
“I loved my time at Queens, I made some of my best friends, we won tough championships with Coach Dugdale but outside of the Olympics my priority is to race at the Division 1 level with a top team,” Josa said in the statement. “Based of their pattern of success, Dave Durden’sand David Marsh’s similar coaching philosophy, and Cal’s impressive results in the Long Course pool, I plan to finish my last 2 years as a Cal Bear”
Josa is a huge pickup for Cal. He holds NCAA Division II records in the 100 fly, 200 fly and 200 IM, and is coming off an Olympic Trials meet where he finished 6th overall in the 100 fly.
He also gives Cal a badly-needed weapon in the butterfly races, which have been the key cogs in Texas’s back-to-back wins over Cal at NCAAs.
Josa’s Lifetime Bests (Short Course Yards)
- 100 fly – 44.89
- 200 fly – 1:42.96
- 200 IM – 1:41.94
- 200 free – 1:34.21
- 100 free – 42.75
- 50 free – 19.87
Keep doing the math and Texas still keeps coming up by over 100pts. If Cal is going to compete they need the distance group and freshmen sprinters to make a splash.
Yes and don’t forget it is a SWIMMING AND DIVING MEET! Go HORNS dive em to a championship!
Unquestionably Josa makes Cal better right away. But Cal’s incredible success at Trials was mostly accomplished by seniors and post grads. Of the finalists, only Selisklar and Murphy return.
Texas, on the other hand, had a great trials and most of them are back. The Horns return 5 OT Finalists who totaled 12 finals swims between them:
Smith, 3
Conger, 3
Haas, 2
Licon, 2
Roberts
Shebat
All this PLUS Joe Schooling
Plus 3 more guys who had multiple Championship Finals at NC’s: Harty (3), Ringold (2), Anderson (2)
I remind that unlike Cal’s more recent victories, which came down to the last day, it has not been remotely close the… Read more »
As a Bear fan I mostly agree
Umm what about pebbly or prenot? They’re both undergrads. Well prenot just graduated but I still think it counts
Nvr mind reread your comment you said seniors and post grads
You would think with Texas’ recent domination in the 100 fly events, along with the training group that Texas has would have made them a top choice. Maybe rumors of Eddie retiring deterred him from going that route? Cal is a great program and I’m sure he will do great there, but you can’t argue that Texas has produced some of the past and presents greatest butterfliers, including an insane group currently
True, but it could also be that cal took shields from zero to hero in long course fly
I agree, but it’s worth mentioning that a Texas guy beat shields for a medal at last year’s World Champs
but also from a training style point of view, I think Cal is more to what he is used to and/or wants than Texas, coming from SwimMAC…
and Cal had Shields and Stubblefield in the OT final, as well as Lynch in the NCAA B final, so it’s not like the Cal fly situation is anything to sniff at. and he’s a lock for Cal medley and free relays… at Texas, not so much?
And didn’t Seliskar A final in 2 Fly?
He got third and broke 1:40. Definitely s good group Josa is joining
couldn’t have gone wrong with either decision. ncaa would be just as broken as the nba if josa went to texas.
We don’t know what the scholarship situation was at each school. While Josa is a top recruit, if Texas just didn’t have the money, maybe they couldn’t offer as much as Cal. I don’t know Josa’s financial situation, but that could have been a factor.
Bears roll on. It’s gonna be a meet at NCAAs next year.
Go Bears
This is great for cal. They lost their sprinters and with Josa on fly Lynch can be their freestyler for the 4×50. They just need to wait one more year for Hoffer and they’ll have a killer medley if Murphy redshirts giving them an extra year. That would be scary, Murphy on back with a 20.20. 22.30 or 23 low by hope 20 or 19 high by Josa and Hoffer anchors in lets say 18.30
Why would Murphy redshirt?
I think Uberfan just wants Murphy to redshirt solely for the benefit of an awesome medley relay
Hit the nail right on the head a man can dream right?
Maybe to extend his amateur status for another year? Why get paid until you absolutely have to?
It doesn’t seem likely that Murphy will redshirt next year if he didn’t even redshirt Olympic year.
20.1, 22.9, 19.7, 18.2 1:20.9
That’s in two years, so room for improvement for all involved from where they are today
Most unrealistic splits ever
Actually, those are all completely plausible. Are you aware that Murphy and Hoppe already went 20.20 and 23.29 this year? Josa was 44.8 back in March 2015. Hoffer has been 19.1 flat start as a HS junior. What is unrealistic about these splits?
woohoooo!!!!!
Huge pickup for Cal. They could (potentially) rival Texas next year in a tight NCAA title battle
I mean yes and no. I don’t think Cal is deep enough in the frees to compete with Texas. Even with a sub par swim with clark smith he’s still the faster than Cals best distance swimmer. And clark smith isn’t event he fastest on Texas in the distance group. It’s a huge pick up for Cal but I think Texas is going to pull an Auburn and pick up another 4 championships. I don’t think last years freshman class (Haas class) will let anyone come up and take that from them. It’ll be close at first but I don’t think Cal is deep enough to hang.