Courtesy: Cal Athletics
BERKELEY – The California men’s swimming & diving team wraps up its fall slate this week when the Golden Bears travel to Minneapolis for the annual Minnesota Invitational hosted by the University of Minnesota. The four-day meet will be held at the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center with Arizona, Pitt, Ball State, Harvard, and the Golden Gophers also participating. Fans can follow the action live via the live stream and live results.
NOVEMBER 29-DECEMBER 2
Minnesota Invitational | Swimming Prelims: 8 a.m. PT, Diving Prelims 11 a.m. PT, Finals 4 p.m PT | Jean K. Freeman Aquatics Center | Minneapolis, Minn.
Live Stream: YouTube
Live Results: Meet Results
LAST TIME IN THE POOL
Last time out, Cal hosted rival Stanford for the annual Triple Distance Meet. The Bears won 19 events with Destin Lasco sweeping the individual medley events. A non-team scoring event, the Triple Distance Meet splits swimmers into event groups (butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, sprint freestyle, distance free and individual medley) and requires swims at three different distances within the event: 50, 100 and 200 yards in the fly, breast, back and sprint free; 200, 500, 1,000 in the distance free; and 100, 200 and 400 in the IM.
Cal also swept the 200 medley relay and 200 free relay. In the 200 free, the quartet of Lasco, Jack Alexy, Colby Hatton and Liam Bell finished with a time of 1:18.99. In the 200 medley relay, Cal’s team of Gabriel Jett, Jacob Soderlund, Dare Rose and Bjorn Seeliger finished ahead of Stanford’s team by two-hundredths of a second with a time of 1:26.90.
IN THE RANKINGS
The latest CSCAA Top-25 poll was released Nov. 16, and Cal fell to No. 4 in the rankings with 296 points. Arizona State is No. 1, followed by N.C. State and Florida. Cal opened the year ranked No. 2 in the inaugural poll which was released on Oct. 12. The poll, which is comprised of Division I coaches from across the country, assesses and ranks the nation’s top 25 dual meet teams.
SPIEKER EAST
The Minnesota Invitational will be held at the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center, and Cal has a lot of fond memories at the facility. The Bears won their second consecutive national championship at the facility last March and had a terrific showing at the Minnesota Invite last fall. The facility debuted in 1990 and has hosted eight national championship meets – the Bears have won two (2011 and 2023) and finished second in 2018.
ALUMS TAKE TO THE POOL
The Bears will be well-represented at the U.S. Open Championships at Greensboro Aquatic Center in Greensboro, NC. The U.S. Open Championships is a long-course race that has been approved by World Aquatics as a qualifying event for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Swimming in the meet will be Brooks Curry, Lucas Henveaux, Hugo Gonzalez, Ryan Murphy, and Luke Rodarte.
JOSHUA THAI HEADS TO KNOXVILLE
Sophomore diver Joshua Thai will head to Knoxville, Tenn., this week to participate in the 2023 USA Diving Winter National Championship Nov. 29-Dec. 6. Thai, as well as 109 other divers from across the country, will be vying for 12 national titles and spots on the 2024 World Championships team, as well as qualifying scores for the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials.
Looks like Matthew Chai isn’t entered and no longer on the roster.