Cal in NCAA Men’s Swim and Dive Championships Day 3: 5 Bears and relay to A-Final

INDIANAPOLIS — Friday is a brand new day. Despite setting a brand new American Record in the 400 Medley Relay, California Golden Bears have to feel a bit disappointed by both the lack of a national title thus far and how Texas Longhorns have managed to build a very large Day 2 lead, yet again - like last year when they dominated the meet.

Texas head coach Eddie Reese said that he’s got no idea what their lead is and only knows that the meet is not over. Cal head coach Dave Durden echoed similar sentiment about keep chasing personal records in each swim and each event, one at a time. Everyone is going insanely fast at the 2017 NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships thus far. That trend will likely continue today. Let’s hope that the Golden Bears will be the first to touch that wall. With the 100 Back today, it is a good bet to see Ryan Murphy doing that.

200 Free Relay - Florida’s Caelab Dressel started the race with an 18.23 (his record in the 50 Free is 18.20) and the Bears had to play catchup. Eventually, it was the Texas quartet of Brett Ringgold, Jack Conger, Tate Jackson, and Joseph Schooling that took the win with a time of 1:14.59. Florida finished 2nd with a time of 1:14.88. Cal Bears placed 3rd with a time of 1:15.29. Golden Bears used Pawel Sendyk (18.23), Michael Jensen (18.75), Justin Lynch (18.70), and Matthew Josa (18.92).

500 Free - No Golden Bears made the A or B final of this event. Texas’ senior Clark Smith set a new NCAA record with a 4:08.42 swim to rewrite the record book. His teammate Olympian Townley Haas finished 2nd.

200 IM - Ryan Murphy and Andrew Seliskar were both in the A-Final. Murphy came out strong and at the ³⁄₄ part of the race, Murphy and Seliskar were going 1-2 in this race. Then, Texas’ Will Licon and Florida’s Mark Szaranak managed to tie (just like what we saw in women’s 200 Free last week) and out touch Murphy by 0.06 second. Seliskar ended up 6th.

50 Free - Florida’s Caelab Dressel swam another 18.23 on the night to take this event. Cal freshman Pawel Sendyk finished 6th. In the B-Final, Cal’s Justin Lynch and Michael Jensen finished 14th and 15th, respectively. Both gave their all in their prelim swims to make the jump and qualify for the consolation final.

1-meter Diving - Cal freshman Connor Callahan placed 46th (out of 47 qualifiers). Purdue’ Steele Johnson won the event. Texas’ senior Mark Anderson placed 7th. Their other diver Grayson Campbell placed 17th.

400 Medley Relay - After barely made the A-Final (Cal only got there because Alabama had DQ’ed), Golden Bears went with Ryan Murphy, Connor Hoppe, Matthew Josa, and Michael Jensen in the evening session (Murphy for Quah and Josa for Lynch are the difference from the morning). Murphy had the top time (as expected) but Texas’ John Shebat was very close. Texas pulled ahead with Will Licon on breast. Then the Bears were the only team with a realistic chance to catch the Longhorns. Not with Singapore Olympian Joseph Schooling pulling Texas further ahead in the Fly; nothing that Cal’s Josa can do. Texas’ Jack Conger finished the race for the Longhorns with a better split than Cal’s Jensen.

When it’s all over, Texas set a new NCAA record with a time of 2:59.22. Cal’s 3:01.51 was good enough for a new American record. It’s a nice accomplishment, but it’s not quite a win.

At the end of Day 2 (7 of 21 events complete), Texas Longhorns lead the team race with a score of 225.5. Cal is 2nd with 143. Florida is 3rd with 138.5. Golden Bears have got plenty of work to do to slowly cut into that Longhorns lead.

Post Prelim Updates:

Golden Bears will be racing for the NCAA national titles in 5 of the 6 events tonight. 400 IM: sophomore Andrew Seliskar grabbed the last spot for the A-Final. He will be starting from the lane 8 tonight. Georgia’s Chase Kalisz is the favorite for this event and owns all the records from his 2014 swim. Ken Takahashi was 28th.

100 Fly: Golden Bears finally got a surprise finalist of sort in very newcomer Zhang Quah. He is joined by Matthew Josa in the A-Final. Just missing out on the A-Final and had to swim the B-Final instead is junior Justin Lynch. Florida’s Caeleb Dressel as well as the Texas duo of Jack Conger and Joseph Schooling are the main competitions. Pawel Sendyk and Mike Thomas were 27th and 29th, respectively. Freshman Jack Xie was 38th.

200 Free: Texas Olympian Townley Haas has the top time. Cal’s Long Gutierrez earns a B-Final berth with the 14th best time. Michael Jensen and Ryan Kao were 27th and 34th, respectively.

100 Breast: Cal junior Connor Hoppe made the A-Final with the 3rd best time. Texas’ Will Licon has the top time. Several Bears just missed out on scoring. No.16 qualifier had a time of 52.41. Cal’s Carson Sand (52.47, 18th), Hunter Cobleigh (52.63, 21st) just missed out. Matt Whittle was 36th with a time of 53.24.

100 Back: Ryan Murphy eased into the A-Final with the 3rd best prelim time. Alabama’s Connor Oslin and Texas’ John Shebat may have the better time in the prelim, but Murphy is the man to beat as he goes for a career sweep of the 100 Back title. Somewhat disappointingly, Zheng Quah’s 46.33 was only good for 21st best.

200 Medley Relay: Not to make the same mistake as yesterday, coach Dave Durden went with the A-team for the prelim. Ryan Murphy, Connor Hoppe, Matthew Josa, and Pawel Sendyk put together the 2nd best time of the prelim of 1:23.27, just 0.10 behind Texas (Shebat, Licon, Schooling, and Ringgold).

Looking at Day 3, Andrew Seliskar will make a run at 400 IM. Matthew Josa and Justin Lynch can make some noise in 100 Fly. Long Gutierrez and Michael Jensen will rep the Bears in 200 Free. Bears have a bunch of breaststrokers (Hoppe, Sand, Whittle, Cobleigh) capable of making noise in 100 Breast. Murphy is essentially a lock in the 100 Back with the question mark that is Quah. Callahan will compete in 3-meter diving. To close the day, 200 Medley Relay does list Cal as the top prelim seed.

Let’s win some national titles today!

Here are your links to view this meet online:

Since I am at the meet this year, I am not sure if the links are correct. Please let me know if they are not working and I will attempt to fix them.

My preview of the entire meet: CGB

Prelims starts at 7 AM PT, Finals starts at 3 PM PT

Friday Prelims: IUPUI

Friday Finals: ESPN3

Saturday Prelims: IUPUI

Saturday Finals: ESPN3

Live swimming results: Swimming Results

Live diving results: Diving Results

Schedule: Indiana Sports Corp

GO BEARS!