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Golden Medals: one sentence recap for each of 30 Cal sports

With rugby, men's crew, women's crew, and baseball all done, we're near the end of 2014-15 academic year. Besides several individuals from Cal Track and Field that are still active, it's a good time for a recap of all of Cal Athletics.

By Ruey Yen
As the sun sets on the 2014-15 Cal Athletics season, we take a quick (one sentence) recap of all 30 sports.
As the sun sets on the 2014-15 Cal Athletics season, we take a quick (one sentence) recap of all 30 sports.
Stephen Lam/Getty Images

Writing this column has been a positive feedback cycle of my Cal fandom, I already cared about a dozen of the Cal sports but I have to up my coverage for all 30 official Cal Athletics events. Here is one sentence (and a cheat of a hashtag...which I am pretty sure does not work for the bulk of these) for what I would remember from each of the Cal sports for this past academic year.

Cal Football - Bear Raid is now in full effect in Sonny Dykes and commander Jared Goff's 2nd season. #Drop50

Cal Volleyball - Youth and some bad luck snaps program's 12 year NCAA streak. #AnotherIncomingTop10RecruitingClass

Cal Women's Soccer - 1st home postseason match since 2000 ends in a "Holy Ship!" game winner in Double OT for a young but extremely talented and deep squad. #AlexMorganRecruitingGravyTrainKeepOnRolling

Cal Men's Soccer - Another deep postseason run and season as national title contender shows that 2013 was no fluke. #RIPEloi

Cal Field Hockey - Road Warriors overcoming having no home field to post a competitive season in senior year of Lara Kruggel (Cal's Furiosa with 12 of team's 31 goals all year). #FieldProblemHopefullyResolved

Cal Men's Cross Country - Junior Chris Walden made the NCAA and finished 17th to post 3rd best finish in program history. #1stCalNCAAFinalistForAWhile

Cal Women's Cross Country - Freshman Bethan Knights finished 25th at the NCAA to be the best Cal frosh ever. #ComesThisWinterWeWillBeOnKnightsWatch

Cal Men's Water Polo - A (SoCal tournament) win over Stanfurd snaps 1.5 year of futility against the top 3 teams (USC, UCLA, Furd). #SeniorYearForCalympianSaponjic

Cal Women's Swimming and Diving - Missy Franklin lead Cal to the promise land by delivering a NCAA Team Championship (just 3 individual titles and being a part of two relay titles, ho hum) before turning pro. #JustAsAdvertised

Cal Men's Swimming and Diving - Ryan Murphy defended his national titles in 100 Back and 200 Back and contribute on relays (200 medley relay title) but Bears finished 2nd behind an outstanding week by Texas #CalSwimDynastyWillBeBack

Cal Women's Gymnastics - Record setting season saw the emergence of freshman Toni-Ann Williams and the Bears, as a team, just a hair away from the NCAA Championships with a 3rd place finish at the Berkeley Regional #FlipOnYouBears

Cal Men's Gymnastics - Back in the NCAA Championships for the first time since 2012, Bears, lead by junior Kevin Wolting, finished 5th in the country. #WuTang

Cal Men's Basketball - Cuonzo Martin's year 1 sees the Bears finally beating Syracuse at the 2K Classic but misses out on the postseason before making huge splashes in recruiting #Can'tWaitFor2016

Cal Women's Basketball - Senior season of Brittany Boyd and Reshanda Gray saw a near Pac-12 tournament win (one point loss to Stanford). #HowToReplaceThoseTwoCalLegends

Cal Men's Indoor Track and Field - Honestly, I did not even notice this season at all. #sorry

Cal Women's Indoor Track and Field - Ditto, what I said about the men. #mybad

Cal Sand Volleyball - A nearly brand new squad played in the 2nd season of this sport, when a NCAA championship is first crowned. #NoReasonWeShouldn'tBeGoodSoon

Cal Lacrosse - Year one of Brooks Eubanks era saw the Bears still struggling to be competitive. #patience

Cal Women's Water Polo - For the first time in 40 games (since 2000), the Golden Bears finally beat Stanford in a game. #TalentedSophomoreCoreHaveTwoMoreTries

Cal Men's Golf - Rebuilding year saw the squad just one stroke away from a return to the NCAA Championships. #HoleOnYouBears

Cal Women's Golf - Bears made it back to the NCAA Championships and will return everyone. #HoleOnYouBears

Cal Men's Tennis - Deja vu, Cal season again ends in Texas in NCAA 2nd round (but it was way closer this time). #NCAARecyclingDraws?

Cal Women's Tennis - Deja vu, higher seed Bears upset in back-to-back year in NCAA Sweet 16 by Stanford. #Fabikova/SusanyiMakeNCAADoublesFinal

Cal Softball - Bears returns to the NCAA postseason after year off with a very good offensive year (yes, offense if up across the board in NCAA Softball this year). #StillNeedBetterPitching

Cal Baseball - A return to the postseason saw arguably the 2nd most exciting game/moments in Cal Baseball postseason history. #TheLegendOfElGauchoWillReturnsIn2016

Cal Men's Crew - Another runner-up finish to Washington (5 straight for them) is getting rather frustrating. #CalCrewHasGoldenStandard

Cal Women's Crew - Varsity 8 had a nearly undefeated season broken by repeat champions Ohio State (just a half a second difference). #2ndPlaceFor3rdStraightYear

Cal Rugby - Deja vu, Cal lost Varsity Cup final to BYU but beat Kutztown in CRC (3-peat!) 7s final. #JakeAndersonEndsCareerWithChampionshipWinningTry

Cal Men's Track and Field - TBD, 3 Golden Bears have made the NCAA Championships: Walter Jones in long jump, Ethan Cochran in discus, and Thomas Joyce in 1500 meters.

Cal Women's Track and Field - Freshman Bethan Knights (see Women's Cross Country above) made the NCAA in 500 meters.

By the way, although she's listed as being from Irvine, Knights is a British citizens who moved to the US 10 years ago.

Coming up next week:

The 2014-15 school year has been an unique one for me as I managed to have made it back to Berkeley a few times (and none for my 10 year reunion) to see quite a few of these teams above in person.

I will do a travel post of my trips back to Berkeley and around the country that allowed me to see Cal Women's Soccer (season opening game), Cal Volleyball (intersquad scrimmage), Cal Football, Cal Baseball (fall game), Cal Softball (fall game), Cal Men's Soccer (Big Game), Cal Women's Swimming (both a meet in Berkeley and NCAA's), Cal Men's Crew (Princeton Chase + IRA), Cal Men's Basketball (2K Classic in NYC), and Rugby (CRC).

GO BEARS!

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