Cal Men's Swimming: Bears Capture Their Seventh NCAA Championship in the Sport

Cal pulls away from runner-up Texas on the final day of the four-day event.

Cal won its seventh NCAA men’s swimming and diving national championship on Saturday in Atlanta, the school’s second NCAA team title of the 2021-22 academic year.

On the heels of the Bears capturing the men’s water polo title in the fall, Cal easily outdistanced runner-up Texas by a margin of 487.5 points to 436.5 after leading by just 7.5 points entering Saturday’s final day of competition. Florida was well back in third place with 374 points.

“It’s the best meet in the world to see a group of young men really go after a goal and do it for each other,” Cal coach Dave Durden said. “We sort of knew how the path of this meet was going to go, knowing out last day was going to be our best day.

“I don’t like it that way. I would rather get to a spot where it’s a little more comfortable. That’s a testament to the programs we’re competing against.”

Cal owns the only two national team titles produced by Pac-12 programs this school year, with the exception of Utah’s championship in skiing, a sport in which few schools compete.

The Bears won their fifth title under Durden, adding to previous championships in 2011, ’12, ’14 and ’19. Cal previously won NCAA crowns in the sport in 1979 and ’80.

On the heels of winning their fifth consecutive Pac-12 title, the Bears finished among the top-two at the NCAA meet for a 12th consecutive season. Durden said the Pac-12 meet was excellent preparation for this competition and that this team showed excellent maturity.

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“This meet is getting faster and faster. It’s super competitive and even as we pull back and look at our conference, our conference meet was tough,” he said. “That experience of moving through our conference meet - really put us in a spot where we could handle the situation that we were in for this meet.

"If we’re close by the time we get to Saturday we can really get after this thing.”

Destin Lasco got the Bears off to a strong start Saturday with a victory in the 200-yard backstroke in 1 minute, 37.71 seconds. He touched first after finishing second in the same event a year ago. Daniel Carr was third in 1:39.06, with Bryce Mefford seventh in 1:40.31 and his brother Colby Mefford swam 12th in a lifetime-best 1:39.66.

Björn Seeliger set a school record of 40.75 in the morning prelims of the 100 free, then finished second in the final at 41.00.

Cal had four swimmers score in the 200 breaststroke, led by Reece Whitley’s seventh-place finish in 1:50.83.

The Bears clinched the title by scoring 33 points to none for Teams in the 200 butterfly, led by Trenton Julian in fourth at 1:39.00 and Gabriel Jeff sixth at 1:40.22.

Seeliger, Jack Alexy, Gonzalez and Lasco closed the meet with a third-place finish in the 400 free relay with a time of 2:46.42.

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2021-22 NCAA TEAM CHAMPIONS

2: Cal (men's water polo, men's swimming)

1: Clemson (men's soccer); Florida (indoor women's track and field); Florida State (women's soccer); Georgia (football); Kentucky (rifle); North Carolina State (women's cross country); Northern Arizona (men's cross country); Northwestern (field hockey); Ohio State (women's ice hockey); Penn State (wrestling); Texas (men's indoor track and field); Utah (skiing); Virginia (women's swimming); Wisconsin (women's volleyball).

Cover photo of Cal's national championship team by Justin Casterline, KLC fotos

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo