Rio 2016 Day 8: 6 Calympians poised to earn USA Medley Relay medals, 2 Rowers in Eight finals

Day 7 saw Cal Aquatics continues its dominance on the International stage as the Calympians pick up two more medals - Anthony Ervin (USA) won the Gold in the 50 Free while Nathan Adrian (USA) won the Bronze.

On the final day of Rio 2016 swimming, Golden Bears are in great positions to win even more medals. Tom Shields and Abbey Weitzeil have done their part in the 4x100 Medley Relays on Saturday, they will earn medals if their Team USA teammates, half of them Calympians, can do well in the finals tonight. Barring DQ or some crazy upsets, expect at least 6 more medals to be added to the Cal’s total. When you consider also the chance of the Canadian Woman to medal (Cal junior Noemie Thomas swam in their prelim yesterday) and the two Bears in Eights final in rowing, as many as 9 medals are possible.

Speaking of crazy upsets, Friday saw that in Women’s Soccer as Alex Morgan and Team USA were eliminated by Sweden in penalty kicks in the quarterfinals stage. Morgan scored the equalizer late in regulation, but that was not enough. Despite being a part of the Rio 2016 games, Morgan and her teammates were looking forward to finally make it to Rio in the semifinals, but that just wasn’t meant to be.

Other Golden Bears were eliminated from medal contention on Friday as well. 21 year old Cal student-athlete Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk did not advance past the semifinal of men’s single sculls. Cal student Lily Zhang’s Rio 2016 is over after Team USA were eliminated by Germany in round 1 of team play.

I am still waiting for the first non-US Calympian medal. That could finally happen today thanks to our Canadian neighbors in either the women’s eight rowing or the women’s 4x100 medley relay. Let’s get to the Calympians in action today.

All times listed below are in PDT.

Calympic Medals at Stake in Day 8

Women’s Eight - Caileigh Filmer and the Canadian Eights are in the final - 5th

Men’s Eight - Olivier Siegelaar and the Dutch Eights are in the final - Bronze medal

Neither the Canadian women nor the Dutch men are the favorites to win the Gold, but they are certainly capable of getting on the podium.

Women’s 4x100 Medley Relay - Gold for USA, 5th for Canada

Abbey Weitzeil swam the freestyle leg of the prelim for Team USA, who will use 4 different swimmers for the final. 100 Back Silver medalist Calympian Kathleen Baker will lead off the race, 100 Breast Gold medalist Lily King will be next for the breaststroke, 100 Fly Bronze medalist Calympian Dana Vollmer will follow, before 100 Free Gold medalist Simone Manuel anchors with the freestyle.

16 years old Canadian Penny Oleksiak has already won 4 medals, should she lead the surprising Canadian to a 4x100 Medley Relay medal, than Cal junior Noemie Thomas, who swam the Fly leg of the prelim, will also pick up a medal. I don’t know if Oleksiak wants to come to the US for college, but if Noemie Thomas can some how persuade Penny to come to Cal in a couple of years...I would love to retroactively add those medals to the Cal count.

Men’s 4x100 Medley Relay - Gold for USA

Tom Shields swam the butterfly leg of the prelim for Team USA. Shields is still waiting to join the ranks of being an Olympian medalist. Odds are very very good that he will get there thanks to this event.

Cal senior and the brand new backstroke king Ryan Murphy will swim the leadoff leg. Do not be surprised if Murphy finally breaks a World Record in this swim (leadoff backstroke is the only time that will count toward world record, by the way) as I have had predicted in his CGB profile. 100 Breast Bronze medalist Cody Miller will be up next. 100 Fly Silver medalist Michael Phelps (that’s a weird line to type) will be up third. Anchoring for Team USA is 100 Free Bronze medalist and Calympian Nathan Adrian. Yes, Great Britain has a very close split on paper, but I cannot see Team USA not sending Phelps off with anything but a Gold here.

Other Calympians in Action:

Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk (Poland) in single sculls B-Final - winner of B-Final

Byeong-Hun (Ben) An (South Korea) in Men’s Golf Round 3.

An shot a 70 (-1) in Round 3 to be at -3 through 3 rounds. Going into the final round, An is 6-7 shots off the podium for the moment.

Jahvid Best (Saint Lucia) in 100 meter dash Round 1 - 7th in heat, did not advance

Women’s Water Polo Group Play

Roser Tarrago and Spain beats China 12-8.

Roser Tarrago scored two goals via Penalties.

Spain (2-1) will play Russia (1-2) on Monday at 3:40 PM PT in the Quarterfinals.

Dora Antal and Anna Illes and Hungary lost to USA by 11-6 margin.

Hungary (1-2) will play Australia (2-1) on Monday at 10:10 AM PT in the Quarterfinals.

Group play record is purely for knockout round seeding purposes only.

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Calympians Medal Count:

(Through Day 7)

By Individuals:

7 Golds, 4 Silvers, 3 Bronze

By Events:

5 Golds, 3 Silvers, 3 Bronze

Dana Vollmer (USA) - Silver from Women’s 4x100 Free Relay, Bronze from Women’s 100 Fly

Abbey Weitzeil (USA) - Silver from Women’s 4x100 Free Relay

Nathan Adrian (USA) - Gold from Men’s 4x100 Free Relay, Bronze from Men’s 100 Free, Bronze from Men’s 50 Free

Anthony Ervin (USA) - Gold from Men’s 4x100 Free Relay, Gold from Men’s 50 Free

Kathleen Baker (USA) - Silver from Women’s 100 Back

Ryan Murphy (USA) - Gold from Men’s 100 Back, Gold from Men’s 200 Back

Josh Prenot (USA) - Silver from Men’s 200 Breast

Missy Franklin (USA) - Gold from Women’s 4x200 Free Relay

Cierra Runge (USA)* - Gold from Women’s 4x200 Free Relay

*Runge is not one of the 50 Calympians on the Cal Athletics list, so our Calympian medal count may differ from their

GO BEARS!