California Press Release
TEMPE, Ariz. – California completed a sweep of its trip to the desert, racing past Arizona State, 181-111, in a dual meet Saturday. The Golden Bears won 14 of 16 events, and sophomore Phoebe LaMay broke her own school record on the 1-meter springboard.
Cal, which defeated Arizona Friday, opened the meet by taking the first two races – the 400-yard medley relay and the 1000-yard freestyle behind freshman Chenoa Devine's time of 10:06.20, which was more than seven seconds ahead of the rest of the field.
Sophomore Amy Bilquist, who captured two backstroke events against Arizona, came through with a pair of victories in the free at the 100- and 200-yard distances. Sophomore Kathleen Baker, an Olympic silver medalist in the 100-meter back, won the 100 and 200 back, while sophomore Katie McLaughlin prevailed in both the 200 butterfly and 500 free.
LaMay opened her day with a win in 3-meter diving, then scored 317.63 on the 1-meter board to break her own school mark of 314.18 set earlier this season vs. Texas.
Others to touch the wall first for the Bears were freshman and Olympic medalist Abbey Weitzeil in the 50 free and junior Noemie Thomas in the 100 fly, as she remained undefeated in the event this season. In addition, senior Celina Li captured the 400 individual medley and the Bears won the 200 free relay.
"We swam people in some different events and I thought it went well for us," head coach Teri McKeever said. "We're definitely moving in the right direction, but we're going to need to be better for next week. We are looking forward to having USC and UCLA come in because we know they're going to give us a strong challenge. It's parents' weekend for us, so we hope to have a good crowd for both meets."
Cal returns to Berkeley for its final three dual meets of the year, hosting USC Jan. 27, UCLA Jan. 28 and Stanford Feb. 11.
TEMPE, Ariz. – For the second day in a row, the Cal men's swimming and diving team touched the wall first in each race and that translated to another emphatic dual meet victory as the Bears beat Arizona State 160-130 to win their second dual meet in as many days.
One day after earning a win at Arizona, No. 1-ranked Cal (3-0) kept its momentum going against a No. 12-ranked Arizona State squad swimming its final home meet of 2016-17. High winds and chilly temperatures didn't deter the Bears from getting off to a good start as Ryan Murphy provided a big lead after the backstroke leg and Hunter Cobleigh, Justin Lynch and Long Gutierrez kept right on rolling to a time of 3:09.67 and a win in the 400-yard medley relay.
Sophomore Nick Norman got his day started with a competitive effort in the 1,000 freestyle, battling Arizona State's Benjamin Olszewski throughout but eventually picking up the win with a time of 9:14.05. The 200 free was a similarly close affair, but this time it was a pair of Bears fighting for the win as Gutierrez pulled into the lead late to edge Jensen with a time of 1:35.34. Ryan Kao placed third and Kyle Coan touched fourth to wrap up a Cal sweep.
Murphy picked up the first of two backstroke wins with a dominant effort in the 100, cruising to a time of 46.42. He earned a similarly impressive victory in the 200 with a time of 1:41.22 later in the day and set a pool record in the process, eclipsing the mark of 1:41.84 set by ASU's Barkley Perry in 2016.
A trio of Bears battled through the breaststroke events with Connor Hoppe picking up the win in the 100, Andrew Seliskar taking the 200 and Hunter Cobleigh placing second in both. A similar scenario played out in the butterfly with a good dual between Seliskar and Matthew Josa giving way to a Seliskar win in the 200 and Josa coming back to outduel Lynch for a win in the 100.
Jensen continued a standout freshman campaign with more success in the sprint freestyle as the native of Upper Dublin, Pa. won the 50 for the second-straight day and added a victory in the 100 as well. The 500 free provided some of the day's more exciting racing as Kao overtook ASU's Olszewski in the final 50 yards to win with a time of 4:28.23.
After the final break of the day, Seliskar put the finishing touches on a big day with a dominant top time of 3:50.88 in the 400 individual medley. A battle between Bears capped a 1-2-3 finish as freshman Jack Xie outdueled Ken Takahashi for second. The day closed with another strong relay performance as Jensen, Murphy, Pawel Sendyk and Josa earned the top time of 1:18.99.
Conor Callahan added points for the Bears with a pair of third-place finishes in diving but the freshman continued to show his progress as he set season-highs with a score of 355.05 in the 1-meter and 382.65 in the 3-meter. Both marks are believed to be the second-best in program history.
Cal returns to action at Spieker Aquatics Complex on Feb. 3 when the Bears host USC at 2 p.m. The 2016-17 dual meet season comes to a close on Feb. 18 when Cal hosts Stanford at noon. That meet will also serve as Senior Day and the final prep meet for the Pac-12 Championships in Federal Way, Wash.
