Diving Back In
BERKELEY – California opens its 2021-22 men's swimming & diving campaign with the annual King of the Pool meet at Cal Poly on Friday morning. The unique pentathlon meet will feature each swimmer taking part in five 100-yard races, including butterfly, breaststroke, individual medley, backstroke and freestyle. The swimmer with the best combined time from each school will be crowned king of the pool.
The action starts at 11 a.m. PT at the Anderson Aquatics Center in San Luis Obispo, California.
CAN'T WAIT TO BE KING
Six Bears have been crowned the King of the Pool from 2010-19 before the pandemic interrupted the series last September. Previous winners include three-time winner Marcin Tarczynski (2010-12), Ryan Murphy (2013), Will Hamilton (2014), Matthew Josa (2017), Andrew Seliskar (2018) and Zheng Quah (2019).
OLYMPIC SUCCESS IN TOKYO
It was a summer of success for nine Bears at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, including eight swimmers and Cal head coach David Durden, who served as the United States Olympic men's swimming head coach and guided the American men to 12 total medals. Cal alumni Ryan Murphy (1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze) and Tom Shields (1 gold) brought home four combined medals for the United States while Cal's eight-man contingent amassed four individual finals, six individual semifinals and three relay finals across 11 events.
A trio of the Tokyo Olympians – Hugo González (Spain), Robin Hanson (Sweden) and Björn Seeliger (Sweden) – are on Cal's 2021-22 squad.
THEY'RE BACK
Three standout Bears – Daniel Carr, Sean Grieshop and Trenton Julian – are back in Bear Territory after electing to use an NCAA waiver to compete collegiately for a fifth year. The trio has a combined 46 All-America certificates, 19 Pac-12 titles and one NCAA title (won by Carr on the 2021 200-yard freestyle relay) while having led Cal to the 2019 NCAA team title and four consecutive Pac-12 team titles dating back to 2018.
RETURNING FIREPOWER
Nine of the 13 Bears who earned All-America status in 2020-21 are back on the roster for Cal in 2021-22. In addition to fifth-year standouts Carr, Grieshop and Julian, Cal will be paced by Destin Lasco, the 2021 Pac-12 Freshman of the Year and NCAA runner-up 200 backstroke, Reece Whitley, the 14-time All-American and 2021 NCAA runner-up in the 200 breaststroke, Hugo González, the 2021 NCAA runner-up in the 200 individual medley and Björn Seeliger, who collected six All-America certificates and won two NCAA relay titles in the 200 and 400 free relays as a freshman last year.
NEW FACES
Cal's 2021-22 roster features 10 freshmen and a pair of transfers, graduate Will Roberts (Michigan) and junior Liam Bell (Alabama). The 10-man freshman class includes 2020 Olympian Robin Hanson, 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials semifinalist Jack Alexy and six-time IHSAA state champion Trent Frandson.
STAY POSTED
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