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Men's Swimming in Pac-12 Championships update, Sand Volleyball about to debut, more on conference winning Men's Track and Field

Let's check in on how a subset (there are too many for me to write about them all in one article) of the Cal non-revenue sports are faring this week, starting with another Cal squad looking to win a conference championship up in Seattle.

By Ruey Yen
Bears are looking to repeat as Pac-12 Champions in Men's Swimming and Diving
Bears are looking to repeat as Pac-12 Champions in Men's Swimming and Diving
Cal Men's Swimming and Diving Facebook

Cal Men's Swimming in Pac-12 Championships Update

After the Cal women capture their 3rd Pac-12 Championship in swimming and diving, the men are trying to match that feat this week. Last year, the Cal men snapped a 31 year oppression by the Stanfurd Cardinal in the Pac-12. Even when the Golden Bears were winning national championships in the two years prior, they did not with the Pac-12 title. An easy reason for Furd's dominance has to do with them being one of the only school in the conference that has good divers and lots of them.

The diving portion of the Swimming & Diving championship took place last weekend with the women's. The result there are the following:

1. Stanford – 150
2. Arizona State – 85
3. Arizona – 79
4. USC – 65
5. Utah – 60
6. Cal – 17
7. UCSB – 9
8. Cal Poly – 0

So the Bears face a 133 point deficit to make up in the swimming portion of the championship. Note that the diving points are officially added in in stages. The three diving events, while the results are already known, are adding in on Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday night. Consequently, Cal is currently (on Friday morning) in the lead with only one diving result added in.

The official standings after 7 events (only 1 diving - 1 meter)

1. Univ of California, Berkeley 271
2. Stanford University 243
3. University of Southern Calif 208
4. Arizona, Universiy of 193
5. Utah, University of 119
6. Arizona State University 100
7. U C, Santa Barbara 93
8. Cal Poly 79

With all the diving points included (where Furd got 150 points to Cal's 17)

1. Stanford – 338
2. Cal – 283
3. USC – 250
4. Arizona – 192

Bears got 12 more swimming events to close the gap to 'Furd. With fewer schools competing, the men's swimming and diving differs from the women in that only the top two finals score points (like the NCAA's). While the Bears have been winning the swimming portion of the event so far, total point-wise, the lone Pac-12 Championships won came in event 7: the 200 Free relay.

The quartet of Tyler Messerschmidt, Ryan Murphy, Tony Cox, and Seth Stubblefield are your Pac-12 Champions.

Other Golden Bears that have made the podium (top 3) includes:

  • Ryan Murphy, Chuck Katis, Tony Cox, and Tyler Messerschmidt with 2nd place in 200 medley relay
  • Trent Williams, Seth Stubblefield, Long Gutierrez, and Will Hamilton with 2nd place in 800 free relay
  • Josh Prenot and Will Hamilton with 2nd and 3rd places in 200 IM, respectively
  • Seth Stubblefield with 2nd in 50 free

To follow on the results online, click here.

Swimming World has a day 2 recap here.


Of course, the main objective of the Pac-12 Championships is to get guys qualify for the NCAA's. We will have a better count of how many Golden Bears qualify for each event in the recap post.

Last but not least, the Pac-12 Networks broadcast of this championship will take place on March 10th at 7:30 PM PT. Calympian Nathan Adrian will do the color commentary for that.

Cal Sand Volleyball about to debut

There have been some extra interest in the format and the squad for Cal's newest school sponsored sports, Cal Sand Volleyball. The Golden Bears will officially debut on Sunday morning at 10 AM at Stockton against Pacific.

The lineup for the match has been announced as:

Cal’s Pairings
1. Adrienne Gehan (6-3, Sr., Dallas, Texas)/Joan Caloiaro (5-11, Sr., Saratoga, Calif.)
2. Sarah Cole (5-11, So., San Jose, Calif.)/Lara Vukasovic (6-5, So., Zagreb, Croatia)
3. Maddy Kerr (5-7, Fr., San Diego, Calif.)/Nikki Gombar (6-0, Fr., Rome, Italy)
4. Katarina Milosavljevic (6-1, So., Cupertino, Calif.)/Sabrina Blackwell (5-7, Fr., San Jose, Calif.)
5. Emily Lunt (5-8, Fr., Santa Barbara, Calif.)/Caroline Olson (5-9, Fr., La Quinta, Calif.)

For Cal Volleyball fans, those are all familiar names with the exception of the last pair. It is a little bit surprising that Christina Higgins and Lillian Schonewise are not included. They are a part of the team photo, but they also have not shown to have the ability to play a full rotation (playing in the backrow and be able to dig the balls effectively). That is the main skill that I hope will translate to Cal (Indoor) Volleyball being better in the fall.

The format of the meet will be

The Format
NCAA sand volleyball competition consists of five doubles matches, with the school that wins at least three matches getting the overall victory. Matches are a best-of-three format, with the first two sets played to 21 points and a potential decisive third set played to 15. The teams switch sides after every seven points; five points in the third set.

Cal Men's Track and Field wins MPSF Championship

Overshadow by the feat (and star power) of Cal women's swimming, men's track and field captured the program's first conference championship since 1992-93. Just like the Cal women's swimming, this meet also took place in Seattle, Washington. The Director of Cal Track and Field, Tony Sandoval won the MPSF Coach of the Year honor.

The turning point of the meet has been credit to the 1-mile run result.

1-Mile Run – 1. Jordan Locklear 4:04.03, 24

"The turning point for us was Locklear's upset victory in the mile," Sandoval added. "It symbolized that anything is possible. Everyone was closely watching the scoring after that. The drama in the mile relay was classic as Jordan anchored the team to seventh place and gave us a two-point cushion in the event."

Other Cal athletes who finished in the top 3 includes:

60-meter dash (final) – 2. Tom Blocker 6.72

60-meter hurdles (final) – 2. Milan Ristic 7.74

High Jump – 3. Nick Ridge 6-11.00 (J2.11m),

Triple Jump – 2. Hammed Suleman 51-4.50 (15.66m), 3. Jonte Grant 50-10.75 (15.51m)

This all ends with a final team score of

Team Score – 1. California 96; 2. Arizona State 93; 3. Oregon 88.50; 4. UCLA 75.50; 5. Arizona 66; 6. Stanford 59; 7. Washington 50; 8. Washington State 49.50; 9. BYU 37; 10. Colorado 32; 11. Long Beach State 8.50; 12. Cal State Northridge 4.

The Bears just edged ASU while the Nike sponsored Track and Field powerhouse in Oregon finished just 3rd.

Cal Women's Track and Field

The women finished in a tie for 7th in the MPSF championship.

The two best results for the Cal women are

High Jump – T-2. Grace Beaudoin 5-8.00 (1.73m)

Shot Put – 3. Chioma Amaechi 53-1.50 (16.19m)

Team Score 1. USC 106; 2. Arizona State 81; 3. Arizona 75; 4. Oregon 66.50; 5 Stanford 63.50; 6. 43; T-7. California 38; T-7. BYU 38; 9. Colorado 29; 10. Washington State 28.50; 11. Washington 28; 12. Utah 26; 13. Cal State Northridge 14.50; 14. UC Irvine 8; 15. Cal State Fullerton 7; 16. Hawaii 5; 17. Long Beach State 3.

A subset of the track and field team will next compete in the NCAA Indoor Championships next weekend in Albuquerque, NM.

The California Golden Bears track & field team will have three representatives at the NCAA Indoor Championships on Friday, March 14 and Saturday, March 15 in Albuquerque, N.M. Redshirt Junior Chioma Amaechi will be competing in the weight throw competition, while on the men's side, redshirt senior Hammed Suleman will be looking to win his first NCAA crown in both the long jump and triple jump competitions and senior Milan Ristic will be competing in the 60-meter hurdles at the Albuquerque Convention Center. The meet will be streamed live online on ESPN 3 and will also be available on the Watch ESPN application for many smartphones and tablets, beginning at 4:55 p.m. PT on Friday and Saturday at 4:50 p.m. PT.

Cal Baseball

Cal Baseball (8-3) had a 6 game win streak snapped on Tuesday against rival 'Furd (in a non-conference game). Prior to that, the Bears had the best pitching in the Pac-12 (against non-conference foes, so take that with a grain of salt) in addition to some timely hitting.

Prior to the Stanfurd game, this is what I wrote:

For the last 5 games, the Bears have scored at least 5 runs in all of them. Vince Bruno lead the Bears with a 0.387 average. 3 Golden Bears are tied for the team lead with 6 RBI's each. They are Devon Rodriguez, Derek Campbell, and Nick Halamandaris. As a team, the Bears have the slash line of 0.241/0.328/0.328 which is not that impressive. So there have been a lot of clutch hitting by Cal.

The RBI leader are still safe since the Bears only managed a solo homer against Furd by Jacob Wark (who also plays on the Cal Football team).

Bears will look to bounce back this weekend when they host the Cal Baseball Classic.

Fri., March 7 Tulane, Evans Diamond, Berkeley, Calif. 7 p.m.
Sat., March 8 San Francisco, Evans Diamond, Berkeley, Calif. 6 p.m.
Sun., March 9 Arkansas, Evans Diamond, Berkeley, Calif. (DH) 1 p.m

KALX, 90.7 FM will be broadcasting the March 7 Tulane-Cal and March 8 San Francisco-Cal games, which means that CGB will have open threads for you to talk about the games.

Cal Rugby

Last but not least for the week, Cal Rugby has improved its record to 13-0 with 4-0 in the PAC. After a first half struggle in an eventual win against UCLA (32-10) on Pac-12 Networks, the Bears have bounced back to have the more typical results against ASU (76-18), Arizona (78-7), and Santa Rosa JC (65-19 win by the Cal frosh and sophomores).

Bears will next take on No.19 Cal Poly on Sunday down at San Luis Obispo.

GO BEARS!

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