McLaughlin Drops 48.7 100 Free As Cal Men & Women Sweep Utah

Utah vs Cal

• Wednesday, October 10, 2018
• Berkeley, California
• Spieker Aquatics Complex
• Cal Women’s Press Release
• Utah Women’s Press Release
• Cal Men’s Press Release
• Utah Men’s Press Release
• Full Results (PDF)

The Utah Utes headed over to Berkeley on Wednesday to face Cal after opening their dual meet season at Stanford on Tuesday, and it was another tough outing against two of the best teams in the country as the Golden Bear men and women both won in decisive fashion.

The Cal women won by a score of 184.5-111.5, while the men defeated the Utes 191-100.

Women’s Meet

Abbey Weitzeil had a standout performance for the Bears as she led all swimmers with three individual event wins. Weitzeil won her speciality, the 50 freestyle, in 22.28 over teammate Katie McLaughlin, who set a personal best time in 22.71. Weitzeil then branched out to two events she rarely competes in, impressively taking the 100 breast (1:01.92) and 500 free (4:54.66).

In addition to her PB in the 50 free, McLaughlin also had a win of her own in the 100 free, where she clocked in at 48.79 to fall less than four-tenths off of her personal best (48.40) from the 2017 Pac-12s.

Along with Weitzeil, freestyler Robin Neumann and diver Briana Thai also won multiple events, with Neumann claiming the 1000 free (10:03.58) and 200 free (1:48.36) back-to-back and Thai winning both the 1-meter and 3-meter.

The Bears also had three freshman earn victories, with Cassidy Bayer winning the 200 fly in 1:59.00, Alicia Wilson taking the 200 back in 1:58.08, and Elise Garcia touching first in the 100 fly in 54.50. Amy Bilquist also had a win of her own in the 100 back (53.78).

The Utes had two wins, with Genny Robertson leading 1-2-3 finish in the 200 breast in 2:15.39 and Jordan Anderson winning the 400 IM in 4:21.85.

In the relays, McLaughlin’s 23.71 fly split led Cal to the victory in the 200 medley in 1:41.36, while both McLaughlin (48.92) and Weitzeil (48.94) were stellar in the 400 free relay as the Bears clocked 3:22.49.

Men’s Meet

On the men’s side Cal won all but one event on the schedule, led by double winners Andrew Seliskar, Michael Jensen and diver Connor Callahan.

Seliskar showed off his versatility with wins in the 200 breast (1:56.81) and 200 fly (1:44.26), along with a pair of quick freestyle splits on the 200 medley (19.44) and 400 free (43.91 lead-off) relays where Cal won easily.

Jensen, who also had two impressive relay splits with a 20.42 fly leg and a 43.04 on free, swept the sprint freestyle events with showings of 19.96 and 43.81. In the 50 he beat out sophomore teammate Ryan Hoffer (20.17), while in the 100 he out-touched Pawel Sendyk (43.85) by just .04.

Callahan won both the 1-meter and 3-meter diving events easily with scores of 355.13 and 337.43 respectively.

Also of note for Cal was freshman Reece Whitley earning his first dual meet victory as a Golden Bear in the 100 breast, where he put up a very impressive 53.74 with teammate Carson Sand (54.54) in 2nd.

Also winning for Cal:

• Nick Norman, 1000 freestyle, 9:06.42
• Zheng Quah, 200 freestyle, 1:37.09
• Daniel Carr, 100 backstroke, 48.26
• Bryce Mefford, 200 backstroke, 1:45.34
• Trenton Julian, 100 butterfly, 49.54
• Sean Grieshop, 400 IM, 3:50.87

The Utes’ lone win came in the 500 free, where Rahiti De Vos went 4:30.31 to top Cal’s Ken Takahashi (4:33.44).

Along with Seliskar and Jensen, Carr (21.99) and Sand (24.35) swam on the winning 200 medley relay (1:26.20), and Quah (44.47) and Sendyk (43.74) swam on the 400 free relay (2:55.16).