Today is the day! Can Cal men's swimming & diving win the National Championship? They head into the final day in first place:
The No. 1-ranked California men's swimming team - behind national titles from seniorDamir Dugonjic (100 breast), sophomore Tom Shields (100 back) and the 200 medley relay - jumped ahead of the team standings at the 2011 NCAA Championships Friday night (March 25) at the Dorothy L. Shepard Pool in Minneapolis.
With several strong performances Friday night, the Golden Bears now lead the three-day meet with 352 points, surpassing Texas (288.5) and Stanford (278.5), who had led Cal after Thursday's finals.
So, they are up on two of the most hated teams in America, Stanford and Texas, by 60 some odd points. My ability to understand the scoring system is limited and so it is unclear to me how safe this lead truly is. It wasn't just that Cal has had a great showing and won some individual National Titles so far this competition. Also, Beijing Olympics Gold medalist Nathan Adrian set a new American record:
On Thursday, Adrian won the 50 free with a new American record of 18.66
Today, Cal will compete in the following:
On the final day of the 2011 NCAA Championships (March 26), Cal will be competing in the 1650 free, the 100 free, the 200 breast, the 200 fly and the 400 free relay.
Seems like there is still a lot to be decided. Hopefully, our beloved Golden Bears will come out on top. Where can you watch all the action?
First up are the prelims. The official Minnesota site (which has a Swimming Championships central here) states that there will be a free stream to view all the prelim action here at 11:50 CST. I attempted to click on it early and it seemed to request that I subscribe to their pay service, so I am not entirely certain what will happen.
The finals will be streamed on ESPN3, starting at 4:45 PM PST. We'll have an open thread for the basketball and baseball up later today. So, hopefully you can join us all day long to comment on how the NCAA Basketball, baseball and Swimming competitions are going. Click here for basketball. Click here for baseball. Good luck to the Cal Men's Swimming & Diving team and GO BEARS!