We’ve been saying all semester that, while we still believe that Cal has the best men’s team in the country, we have still really not had much to back that up, save prior seasons’ results. As evidence of that, on Friday they only participated in their third dual meet of the season, while most of their Pac-10 rivals have swum in at least twice that many. By the end of that meet, we had a much better idea of what Cal was and, surprise-surprise, we still believe that Cal has the best men’s team in the country. USC, on the other hand, put up some impressive things in the first half of the season, but were likely not quite as good (due mostly to their youth) as early returns indicated. The #1 Golden Bears knocked off #8 USC 160-133 (with a two event exhibition) at home at the Spieker Aquatics Complex.
Cal continued their strategy of parity in the medley relays by taking 1-2 with very tight times of 1:27.08 and 1:27.64. Nathan Adrian again anchored the B-relay, as it’s unlikely that he will swim this race at NCAA’s. Last year, Cal won this relay without him. In the second event, the men’s 1000 free, USC’s Charlie Charlesworth won in 9:18.91. He is one of the leading candidates for the men’s distance titles at NCAA’s. But more exciting than that was Jeremy Bagshaw from Cal, who touched just behind in a 9:20.22. We picked Bagshaw as one of our keys to the Cal men’s season, because the program was nearly devoid of distance swimmers. This is a lot of pressure to put on a young, unheralded freshman, but it looks like he’s starting to come through. Even more exciting than a 6-second time drop: he had a fantastic closing 100 of 52.6, which should give him hope of a great finish in the mile at NCAA’s.
Tom Shields is going to compete in the 100 fly-200 free double on day 2 at NCAA’s this year, and he pulled off the same double on this day. The order is reversed, but he swam the 200 free in 1:36.19. After that race, there was a sizable break before the 100 fly, so the Cal coaches did a little creative lineup-making. They entered Shields in the 200 back, rather than his usual 200 fly, to give him an opportunity to swim his marquee event tired. He also happened to win the 200 back, in a very fast 1:44.3, but that’s not the event the coaches were focused on. They were more interested in what he would do just two races later, after the 200 breast and 500 free, on about 15 minutes rest. Shields did not fail to disappoint with a 46.92 on similar rest to what he will experience at NCAA’s. Though the races aren’t the same, and in March the fly will come first, Shields definitely demonstrated that he is able to swim at an elite level even with limited event spacing.
The 50 free was an important torch-bearing race between the outgoing Nathan Adrian, the class of NCAA sprinting, and Vlad Morozov, the freshman sensation. On this day, however, Adrian all-but-quelled the speculation that Morozov might be able to challenge him by posting a 19.25 to the Russian’s 19.81.
Despite all of Cal’s fireworks in their multitude of events, perhaps nowhere are they deeper than in the 100 breaststroke. In this meet, Cal placed 1-4, with all swimmers at 55.5 or better. The winner of the race was senior Damir Dugonjic, who swam a season-best time of 53.67. This catapults him up the rankings to 5th in the nation.
Love this entry. But then again, by my screen name, you probably knew that. GO BEARS.