Cal Males Will Want March Magic to Proceed Unbelievable Streak
The California males’s swim workforce owns probably the most spectacular streak in faculty swimming historical past, one which should rank among the many finest throughout all sports activities. At every of the final 15 NCA A Championships, the workforce has completed first or second place within the standings, and the quantity could be 16 if not for the cancellation of the 2020 meet on the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Whereas some groups wrestle to duplicate their season-best performances in March, Golden Bears head coach Dave Durden has his workforce able to go yearly, his run courting again to his third yr on the job.
However this spring, it would take some severe Durden magic to get the job carried out once more. Texas, the workforce atop the rankings with Cal for 12 of the 15 top-two finishes, is favored to defend its nationwide crown from final yr whereas applications together with Indiana, Florida and Arizona State have quite a few completed performers coming again for this yr’s meet.
The Bears, however, misplaced virtually all the males accountable for scoring 471 factors on the 2025 NCAA meet, solely 19 lower than the Longhorns. Cal turned the primary workforce to ever swim underneath 6:00 within the 800 free relay on the meet’s opening night time, however Jack Alexy, Gabriel Jett, Destin Lasco and Lucas Henveaux are all out of school eligibility.
Alexy by no means developed the turns to make himself a person national-title contender in yards, however he is likely one of the finest sprinters on the planet, as evidenced by his pair of particular person medals from this yr’s World Championships. Lasco was a multi-time NCAA titlist who stays the quick course yards American-record holder within the 200 IM and 200 backstroke whereas the versatile Jett was all the time good for 3 A-finals per NCAA meet and Henveaux put up huge factors within the mid-distance races throughout his two seasons at Cal (2023 and 2025). Whereas not at Alexy’s degree, Lasco, Jett and Henveaux have all established footholds on the worldwide degree.
Bjorn Seeliger completed his profession after he was constant nationwide A-finalist within the dash occasions over the previous 5 seasons, as did Dare Rose, a butterfly specialist who was second within the 200-yard occasion final season earlier than qualifying for his second World Championships workforce in June. Additionally gone are backstroker Mewen Tomac, an Olympic finalist within the 100-meter race in Paris, plus NCAA comfort finalists Frank Applebaum, Robin Hanson, Matthew Jensen and Tyler Kopp.
Robust swimmers stay on the Golden Bears roster however nothing near the extent of final yr’s workforce. Yamato Okadome is the one returning swimmer who reached a nationwide A-final or swam on a relay ultimately season’s NCAAs. Okadome impressed in his freshman marketing campaign as he stuffed the position of Cal’s No. 1 breaststroker, beforehand occupied by NCAA champion Liam Bell, and he positioned sixth within the 200-yard occasion and seventh within the 100 nationally. Now he may be the workforce’s most dear performer.
Keaton Jones — Photograph Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
Keaton Jones, an Olympic finalist within the 200-meter again, is now a junior for the Bears, however he’s nonetheless looking for the quick course success to match his lengthy course accomplishments. He has been sub-1:55 within the lengthy course model of the occasion however by no means an NCAA A-finalist in yards (he completed ninth final yr). The workforce’s different returning scorers are Huberto Najera (thirteenth within the 200 again and 14th within the 400 IM in 2024), Hank Rivers (sixteenth within the 100 breast) and Joshua Thai (sixteenth in 3-meter diving). Nans Mazellier takes on the position of the workforce’s high sprinter whereas Geoffrey Vavitsas was an A-finalist in diving in 2024.
In the meantime, Cal has an intriguing group of swimmers becoming a member of its roster, with the middle-distance and distance freestyle races in significantly fine condition. Main that group is Ryan Erisman, a freshman coming off a stellar exhibiting at U.S. Nationals. Erisman got here near reaching the World Championships along with his third-place end within the 400-meter free, and he was additionally fifth within the 800 free and sixteenth within the 200. As well as, Nathan Wiffen, the dual brother of 800 free Olympic champion Dan Wiffen, will be a part of the Cal workforce this yr, and Eduardo Moraes, who completed seventeenth within the 500 free ultimately season’s NCAAs, is anticipated to hitch the workforce later this season.
The freshman class additionally features a pair of swimmers who represented the U.S. on the World Junior Championships this yr, Kenny Barnicle and Norvy Clontz. Barnicle picked up a bronze medal on the meet by advantage of his efforts on the American males’s 400 free relay. Nevertheless, it’s presently unclear to what extent these two and the workforce’s different freshmen may present a national-level influence in yr one.
Lastly, don’t low cost the potential of a game-changing midyear addition; that was the case final season when Henveaux and Tomac unexpectedly debuted for the Bears in January. However even with a winter game-changer, it may be an excessive amount of to anticipate Cal to proceed its unbelievable streak of top-two finishes following the slew of graduations. That mentioned, given the current historical past of this program, by no means depend out Cal.
