Now that the Cal Fall Olympic sports season is over - shameless plug of my picks for the team, athletes, newcomers, and stories of the season from my post last week, which culminated in a NCAA national championship for men’s water polo, let’s take a look at the possibility for more Golden Bears national championships in the upcoming “Winter Season”.
Okay, let’s take another look at Men’s Water Polo’s championship winning season first (a new highlight video from earlier this week):
We will go chronologically on the next potential Cal team national championships - national title #96.
One quick note:
Here are the current 95 team national championships claimed by Cal.
Rugby (31)
1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2013^, 2014^, 2015^, 2016, 2016^
Men's Crew+ (17 - Based on Varsity Eight finish)
1928, 1932, 1934, 1935, 1939, 1949, 1960, 1961, 1964, 1976, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2016
Men's Water Polo* (14)
1973, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992, 2006, 2007, 2016
Football# (5)
1920: Billingsley, Football Research, Helms, Houlgate, National Championship Foundation
1921: Boand, Football Research
1922: Houlgate, National Championship Foundation
1923: Houlgate
1937: Dunkel, Helms
Men's Gymnastics* (4)
1968, 1975, 1997, 1998
Men's Tennis (3)
1925*, 1980**, 1989**
Women's Crew%* (4 - Based on combined team finish)
1980%, 2005*, 2006*, 2016*
Baseball* (2)
1947, 1957
Men's Swimming and Diving* (5)
1979, 1980, 2011, 2012, 2014
Men's Track & Field* (2)
1922, 1970
Men's Basketball* (1)
1959
Men's Golf* (1)
2004
Softball* (1)
2002
Women's Swimming and Diving* (4)
2009, 2011, 2012, 2015
Women's Tennis (1)
2016**
*NCAA
^Rugby 7s
**Intercollegiate Tennis Association National Indoor Championship
%National Women's Rowing Association
+Intercollegiate Rowing Association
!Collegiate Rugby Championship
#Various Polls
Yes, most schools - particularly our peers to the South (both the South Bay and Southern California) tends to focus on just the NCAA national championships. UCLA leads the way with 113, Stanford has 110 (including the latest Men’s Soccer title), and USC has 103 (including the latest Women’s Soccer title). Cal is 10th with 38. However, we know that Cal Athletics’ legacy extends beyond those sports govern by (the money grab that is) NCAA. [To their credit, Stanford does claim a few non-NCAA national titles - they are in women’s lightweight crew and synchronized swimming, two programs that are still going strong down at The Farm.]
We are proud of Cal Crew’s tradition and our 17 national titles there. We like to count the 5 national titles won by Cal Football in the 20’s and 30’s. We care about our women’s crew history before that sport was governed by NCAA. Finally, Cal Rugby’s 31 national titles are a huge part of Cal’s athletic legacy despite men’s rugby not being “a NCAA sport” (women’s rugby is on its way to become a NCAA sport soon, by the way).
Also in the count of 95 above are 2 Cal Men’s Tennis and 1 Cal Women’s Tennis team title from Intercollegiate Tennis Association National Indoor Championships. *Cal also claims the 1925 NCAA men’s tennis team title even though NCAA doesn’t officially hand out team titles in tennis until the 40’s. In 1925 AND 1926, Cal did win both the NCAA singles and doubles title - but there was no such thing as a team title (according to Wikipedia).
While the more prominent prize for the collegiate tennis season are the NCAA national titles, teams have to run through a very similar gauntlet in the end of winter to win these ITA Indoors championships. Who cares if a school like Stanford was missing their top women’s player (Carol Zhao) for the 2016 ITA run because that player wanted to play some WTA tennis (Zhao has since forgone her senior year to turn pro)?
Cal Women’s Tennis at ITA Indoors
- February 10-13, 2017 (New Haven, CT)
Golden Bears are the defending champs for this event. Bears won this in 2016 thanks to the depth of the lineup. Of course, Bears lost a big part of that depth with the graduation of Klara Fabikova (last year’s No.2) and Lynn Chi (last year’s No.3/4) - one third of the singles lineup.
Nevertheless with top player Maegan Manasse, who is one of the best player in the country (although many players tend to play a little differently when they play for the team rather than themselves) is back for her senior campaign. The doubles pairing of Manasse with fellow senior Denise Starr is also one of the top pair in the country (ranked 3rd in the nation this fall).
It will be interesting to see who will step up to replace Fabikova and Chi in 2017.
To make it to New Haven for the Top 16 teams, Bears will need to win their regional on January 29th-30th in Berkeley against Xavier, Missouri, and Old Dominion.
Cal Men’s Tennis at ITA Indoors
- February 17-20, 2017 (Charlottesville, VA)
Bears didn’t get to play in this tournament last year due to their Kickoff weekend matches, scheduled for a trip to Duke, cancelled due to weather (it prevented teams from traveling to Durham). [Yes, this would never happen for the NCAA, I don’t think.]
Nevertheless, Cal Men’s Tennis made it to the NCAA team semifinal last year before losing to eventual champ (2x defending) Virginia (who will also be hosting the ITA Indoors again).
The core (particularly the top of the lineup) for the Bears are back with Florian Lakat and Filip Bergevi leading the way. Andre Goransson is the third senior who will be counted on heavily by the team. Juniors Billy Griffith and J.T. Nishimura are also back although the Bears will need to replace the graduated Oskar Wikberg (last year’s No.5) and Mads Engsted (doubles and sometimes No.6) this year.
Weather will not be a factor this year as the Bears will host their kickoff weekend on January 27th-28th against Cal Poly, Tulane, and Pepperdine.
Cal Women’s Swimming and Diving at NCAA
- March 16-18, 2017 (Indianapolis, IN)
After the Golden Bears inexplicably finished 3rd as a team in 2016, they will look to rebound from that “disappointment” and vie for the national title against Georgia and Stanford. Without having to include long course (Olympic style races) events on the schedule for teams with swimmers who were training to be Olympians, expect every team (particularly Cal) to be much sharper at the NCAA this season.
Calympian Abbey Weitzeil is making her debut this year after delaying her matriculation to concentrate on making it to Rio. The now sophomore core of Kathleen Baker (Calympian and Rio Silver medalist), Amy Bilquist, and Katie McLaughlin (finally healthy after losing the bulk of her freshman year to a neck injury) should all vie for individual national titles. Now a senior, Egypitan Calympian Farida Osman is a beast as the anchor in relays. Bears will also return seniors Celina Li (for IM) and junior Canadian Calympian Noemie Thomas (for Fly). Golden Bears of course will also introduce some talented freshmen who can make an impact.
Yes, Katie Ledecky is now swimming for Stanford who will also get Simone Manuel back (took a sabbatical to train for the Olympics)...but Ledecky can only realistically swim only so many events, one would think. For the NCAA team national championships, depth is more important than having a couple of superstars.
Cal Men’s Swimming and Diving at NCAA
- March 23-25, 2017 (Indianapolis, IN)
Golden Bears finished 2nd as a team behind a dominant week by Texas in 2016. Don’t be surprised if Cal is the one that dominates the 2017 NCAA championships.
Bears will miss Josh Prenot and Jacob Pebley (both exhausted their eligibility last year), but Calympian superstar Ryan Murphy is still around for his senior season. Besides pencilling him in for another pair of individual national titles in the 100 and 200 back, Murphy will again be a huge part of the Cal relays.
Sophomore Andrew Seliskar is one year stronger and should make a big jump in total points scored this year. Calympian Long Gutierrez (Free/Fly), Connor Hoppe (Breast), Justin Lynch (Free/Fly) should also be big factors again.
Out of the 4 teams featured in this post today, Cal Men’s Swimming (and Diving) is probably the best bet to win a team national title.
GO BEARS!