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Golden Medals: Ryan Murphy joins Missy Franklin in winning National Swimmer of the Year award after a strong NCAA

Let's check out the final Cal tally from the NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championship last weekend: 2 individual and 1 relay NCAA titles. Also, be sure to check out Cal Women's Gymnastics hosting NCAA Regional action this weekend.

By Ruey Yen
Ryan Murphy had an incredible meet at the NCAA last weekend, earning him Swimmer of the Year honor.
Ryan Murphy had an incredible meet at the NCAA last weekend, earning him Swimmer of the Year honor.
Cal Men's Swimming Facebook

While we are all waiting for a bunch of teenagers to make their minds about where they want to spend their next 4 at least 1 years of their lives, here is what else is happening in the world of Cal Athletics.

Cal Men's Swimming and Diving

After winning 3 of the last 4 NCAA team titles, the Golden Bears were hoping to repeat at the 2015 NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving championship at Iowa City, Iowa last weekend. Unfortunately, swimming powerhouse and rival Texas really upped their game this year and ran away with the title. The Bears had to settle for a 2nd place team finish.

Nevertheless, it is a testament of the program that 3 NCAA titles and 4 American/NCAA records (not to mention all the personal record or school records) is considered to be a slight disappointment.


List of Cal NCAA Titles at the 2015 Men's Swimming and Diving Championships

  • 200 Medley Relay - 1:22.74 (Ryan Murphy, Chuck Katis, Justin Lynch, and Tyler Messerschmidt)
  • 100 Back - 44.21 Ryan Murphy
  • 200 Back - 1:36.77 Ryan Murphy

So in Cal Athletics history, there are now 172 NCAA individual titles and 47 NCAA relay titles.

List of Records set by Cal Swimmers at the 2015 Men's Swimming and Diving Championships

  • 200 Medley Relay - American Record - 1:22.40 (Ryan Murphy, Chuck Katis, Justin Lynch, and Tyler Messerschmidt) - set during the 200 Medley Relay prelim
  • 100 Back - NCAA Record - 44.17 Ryan Murphy, set leading off the 400 medley relay final
  • 400 Medley Relay - American Record - 3.01.60 (Ryan Murphy, Chuck Katis, Justin Lynch, and Seth Stubblefield) - set during the 400 Medley Relay final but was beaten by Texas' NCAA and US OpenRecord swim
  • 200 Back - American Record - 1:36.77 Ryan Murphy, besting the world record of Ryan Lochte

Of course, the common factor on all these titles and records is one Cal sophomore - Ryan Murphy.

Deservingly so, Murphy won the CSCAA Swimmer of the Year honor.

Looking ahead to next year, the Bears will miss a few key seniors such as Seth Stubblefield, Chuck Katis, and Adam Hinshaw as well as Will Hamilton and Fabio Gimondi. However, the Bears have reloaded with another top incoming class, headlined by Andrew Seliskar, the top swimming prospect in the country.

Expect the Bears to challenge Texas for the NCAA title again next year.

In addition to the usual swimming dominance, Bears also had a diver that qualified for the platform (just like the woman did a week ago). Freshman Finn Scribbick did not place high enough to score points, but maybe, just maybe, the Bears will get some diving points in the near future.

Cal Women's Swimming

Missy Franklin just continues to accumulate accolades for her great sophomore (and final) year of collegiate swimming.

These two awards are in addition to Missy being named National Swimmer of the Year at the NCAA's two weeks ago.

Her coach, Teri McKeever, also earned a few honors. In addition to being named National Coach of the Year at the NCAA's, Teri also won the Pac-12 Coach of the Year honor.

Teri's greatest achievement may be this though:

By the way, this is a cool feature on Cal sophomore Farida Osman whose anchor swims in two relays were instrumental to those relay wins.


Cal Women's Gymnastics

Can the home gym makes the difference for the Bears, who are seeking only program's 2nd time in advancing to the NCAA Championships. Last year while hosting the Pac-12 Championships, the Bears surprised a bit and placed in the top 3. To make the NCAA Championships, the Bears would need to place in the top 2 in a field that includes No. 3 Utah, No. 10 Georgia, No. 15 Boise State, Utah State and BYU. The Bears themselves are currently ranked 20th in the nation.

Coincidentally, the last time when the Bears made the NCAA, it came in an year when Berkeley was a regional host all the way back in 1992 (few years before the birth of all the members on the team).

It should be an exciting day of Gymnastics in Berkeley on Saturday. Be sure to go check out and cheer on the Golden Bears. Freshman Toni-Ann Williams is the runaway Pac-12 Freshman of the Year. Bears also features Charlie Owens who earned 2nd team all Pac-12 honors.

Cal Baseball

With Easter Sunday looming, the Cal-Wazzu series started last night. Unfortunately, the Bears' bats were cold and managed only 2 runs on a late Mitchell Kranson homer to lose 4-2. Still, after taking 2 out 3 at Utah last weekend, the Bears are in a good place, Pac-12 Standing-wise (note who are the cellar dwellers).

SCHOOL CONF PCT. OVERALL PCT.
UCLA 8-2-0 0.800 21-6-0 0.778
ARIZONA ST. 8-2-0 0.800 20-7-0 0.741
USC 5-2-0 0.714 23-6-0 0.793
OREGON ST. 5-2-0 0.714 22-7-0 0.759
ARIZONA 7-3-0 0.700 22-7-0 0.759
CALIFORNIA 7-3-0 0.700 20-8-0 0.714
WASHINGTON 3-7-0 0.300 16-12-0 0.571
UTAH 3-7-0 0.300 9-18-0 0.333
OREGON 2-7-0 0.222 18-12-0 0.600
WASHINGTON ST. 2-8-0 0.200 13-15-0 0.464
STANFORD 0-7-0 0.000 11-15-0 0.423

The rest of this home series are schedule for tonight and tomorrow. KALX will provide the radio calls so you can follow the 12th ranked Bears.

Fri., April 3 Washington State Evans Diamond, Berkeley, Calif. 7 p.m. KALX 90.7 FM
Sat., April 4 Washington State Evans Diamond, Berkeley, Calif. 1 p.m. KALX 90.7 FM

Cal Softball

Like Baseball, Softball's weekend series also started yesterday. The Bears also dropped the rare Thursday game sadly. Here is the Pac-12 standings (check out who is at the bottom).

SCHOOL CONF PCT. OVERALL PCT.
OREGON 8-1-0 0.889 30-4-0 0.882
UCLA 5-1-0 0.833 30-6-0 0.833
ARIZONA ST. 5-3-0 0.625 24-11-0 0.686
ARIZONA 4-3-0 0.571 29-9-0 0.763
WASHINGTON 4-5-0 0.444 32-9-0 0.780
CALIFORNIA 4-6-0 0.400 26-8-0 0.765
OREGON ST. 4-6-0 0.400 23-12-0 0.657
UTAH 3-7-0 0.300 23-13-0 0.639
STANFORD 1-6-0 0.143 15-20-0 0.429

The Bears did managed to take their first Pac-12 series last weekend, when they took the first two of three from Oregon State. The Bears are at Utah this weekend. Today's game at 3 pm and tomorrow's game at noon are both on the Pac-12 Networks.

Cal Women's Water Polo

For the first time since February 7th, the Bears are hosting a match in Berkeley tomorrow. 4th ranked Bears host 3rd ranked USC with the match on Pac-12 Regional at noon (Sat. April 4th).

Saturday, Apr. 4 | 12 p.m.
No. 3 USC (19-2, 2-1 MPSF) at No. 4 Cal (16-4, 2-1)
Spieker Aquatics Complex | Berkeley, Calif.
TV: Pac-12 Los Angeles

Cal Men's Crew

For the 6th time in 7 years, the Golden Bears have brought home the Copley Cup from winning the San Diego Crew Classic. In addition to the V8+ win (over Penn and Stanford), 2V8+ and Novice V8+ also won the grand finals.

Varsity 8+ takes home the Copley Cup! #GOBEARS

A photo posted by @calcrew on

ROW ON YOU BEARS!

Cal Rugby

In a hard fought battle, the Bears were able to hold off East Bay rival in St. Mary last weekend by a score of 27-20. The momentum changing try was scored on this fine play.

While this was the last regular season match at Witter for the year, the Bears will likely host a playoff match in two weeks. So fans will likely have more chances to see senior captain Jake Anderson do the following.

Rugby has a bye this week before the Varsity Cup playoffs start the following week. Check back next Friday for a preview of the Varsity Cup. Will this be the year when the Bears reclaim the 15s title back from BYU?

GO BEARS!

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