Cal Men’s Swimming Tops Pacific, 149-104

BERKELEY – Led by multiple victories from senior Jeremy Bagshaw and sophomore Tyler Messerschmidt, the Cal men’s swimming team began its 2013-14 dual meet season with a dominating 149-104 victory over Pacific Thursday (Oct. 3) at Spieker Aquatics Complex.

Bagshaw, a senior from Victoria, British Columbia, captured the 200 (1:40.01) and 500 free (4:29.89), while Messerschmidt from Phoenix, Ariz. Won the 50 (20.16) and 100 free (44.55). Messerschmidt also was a member of the Golden Bears’ winning 200 medley relay, swimming the freestyle leg along with freshman backstroker Sven Campbell, sophomore breaststroker Josh Prenot and senior butterflyer Marcin Tarczynski (1:31.47).

Other individual winners for Cal included freshman Janardan Burns in the 1000 free (9:38.27), freshman Long Gutierrez in the 200 fly (1:49.51), Tarczynski in the 100 back (48.84) and Prenot in the 200 breast (2:01.76).

The Bears swam the final three events as exhibitions, with junior Seth Stubblefield clocking in the fastest time in the 100 fly at 1:57.68, freshman Ryan Murphy recording  the fastest time in the 200 IM (1:51.72) and the 400 free relay team (sophomore Nick Dillinger, sophomore Trent Williams, senior Scott Farley, junior Dane Stassi) touching the wall first with a time of 3:06.53.

Following the Pacific dual meet, Cal will have two more fall non-conference dual meets – Friday, Oct. 11 at 1 p.m. at Spieker Aquatics Complex versus Indiana, and Friday, Nov. 1 at 1 p.m. at Spieker Aquatics versus Wisconsin. Last season, the Bears were undefeated in dual meet competition, going 7-0, including defeating Stanford for the first time since 2005.

The Bears will again vie for an NCAA crown in 2014 after winning national championships in 2011 and 2012 and finishing as the runners-up in 2013. Leading Cal will be two individual champions from 2012 – senior Marcin Tarczynski (200 individual medley) and junior Will Hamilton (200 butterfly) – plus four members (Fleming, juniors Seth Stubblefield and Fabio Gimondi, sophomore Tyler Messerschmidt) of title-winning relays. Additionally, Cal features standout sophomores Josh Prenot and Jacob Pebley (third in the NCAAs in the 200 backstroke), plus star recruit Ryan Murphy, one of the nation’s top young backstrokers who was third in the 200 back at this summer’s U.S. national championships.