The California Golden Bears women’s and men’s teams both romped over Bob Bowman’s Arizona State Sun Devils this afternoon in Berkeley. While ASU did win three of four diving events, California touched first in all 28 swimming events, although the Sun Devils made it close in several races. At the end of the day, the score stood at 181-98 in the women’s meet, and 183-107 in the men’s.
Women’s Meet
The Golden Bears began the meet with their fastest official time in the 200 medley relay yet this season, as senior Rachel Bootsma, junior Marina Garcia, junior Farida Osman, and freshman Amy Bilquist took first in 1:39.92.
Senior Kelly Naze marked the final home meet of her collegiate swimming career with victories in the first and the last individual events of the afternoon. She won the 1000 free in 9:59.09 and then swam a 4:14.76 to touch first in the 400 IM. Senior Rachel Acker also picked up a victory, just touching out freshman Kathleen Baker in the 200 free, 1:47.95 to 1:48.00.
Bilqust, junior Celina Li, and Osman all doubled for the Bears. Bilqust swept the backstrokes, winning the 100 back in 53.24 and the 200 back in 1:55.44. Senior Elizabeth Pelton finished second behind Bilqust in both of those events, with times of 54.09 and 1:56.94.
Li pulled off the 200 fly and 200 breast double, winning the former in 2:00.92 and the latter in 2:17.79.
Osman swept the sprint freestyle events, beating Arizona State junior Alysha Bush in the 50 free, 22.83 to 23.30, and in the 100 free, 49.97 to 50.51. Those two races were about as close as the Sun Devils would come to upsetting the California in any event.
The other two individual event winners for the Bears were Baker in the 500 free (4:51.58) and sophomore Noemie Thomas in the 100 fly (53.26).
California’s “A” team, although swimming as exhibition, hit the wall first in the 400 free relay to close out the meet. According to the results on the Meet Mobile app, Naze split a scorching 46.81 to anchor that relay. If correct, that’s faster than any Cal swimmer besides Missy Franklin split in the finals of this event at last year’s NCAA championships.
Men’s Meet
The script was pretty similar for the men’s meet, as the Bears won every swimming event, although a few of the races were decided by closer margins than in the women’s meet.
Junior Ryan Murphy, sophomore Connor Hoppe, senior Josh Prenot, and sophomore Justin Lynch swam to a 1:26.98 to take the win in the 200 medley relay to open the meet.
Four different California seniors earned victory this afternoon, including a couple in “off” events for them. Prenot got his first win of the day in the 100 back, which is not a typical event for him. He beat out Arizona State junior Richard Bohus 48.73 to 49.11. Prenot also won the 200 breast by five seconds in a time of 1:55.69, a week after he won the long course version of this event at the Austin Pro Series meet last week.
Trent Williams won a very tight 200 free, finishing in 1:37.01, just ahead of Murphy (1:37.03) and senior Jacob Pebley (1:37.24). Pebley would go on to win the 200 back in 1:42.45, a very fast time for a dual meet. Tyler Messerschmidt picked up the win in the 50 freestyle (20.36).
Murphy, after going 1:41 in the 200 back yesterday, stayed out of his signature backstroke events today, but still picked up a win, taking the 100 fly in 46.95, just ahead of Prenot (47.39).
Lynch, normally a butterfly specialist, stuck with the sprint freestyles today. In the 100 free, Bohus nearly again spoiled the Bears’ sweep, but Lynch got his hand on the wall first, winning 44.70 to Bohus’s 44.71.
The rest of the events went to California swimmers who were competing in their more usual events. Junior Janadarn Burns won the 1000 free 9:21.88 in the first individual race of the afternoon. Hoppe won the 100 breast by over a second (54.44) and junior Long Gutierrez took the 200 fly in 1:45.50, while Arizona State swimmers took 2nd in both of those events. Freshman Nick Norman led a California sweep of the top three places in the 500 free, winning in 4:28.82. Fellow freshman Andrew Seliskar wrapped up the individual events by securing the victory in the 400 IM with a time of 3:53.42.
Gutierrez, Lynch, Messerschmidt, and Murphy combined to win the 400 free relay in 2:56.25 to close out the meet.
Cal women Hawaii trip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfsNZRyStKo
— California, University of, Ber-PC ‘A’ X3:19.00
1) Pelton, Elizabeth A SR 2) Bootsma, Rachel K SR
3) Acker, Rachael C SR 4) Naze, Kelly R SR
25.44 52.66 (52.66) 1:16.78 (24.12) 1:42.71 (50.05)
2:06.20 (23.49) 2:32.19 (49.48) 2:55.86 (23.67) 3:19.00 (46.81)
Uh what…46.81 from Naze?
it was the senior meet. so that relay swam exhibition with 5 girls. On the last leg, naze did a 50 while some other senior did the other 50.
Messerschmidt… Seems like we’ve heard that name for about 6 years now.
And 6 years I have the feeling he’s still at the same level. 🙂
He was very promising a few years ago in the junior ranks..
I’m still waiting for his breakout swim, especially in long course.
Maybe we’ll have a good surprise at olympic trials.
Same remarks about another promising young American sprinter who has also seriously stalled, Matt Ellis.
Unfortunately absolutely no major improvement in the 100 free in long course since both swim in college.