Spanish swimmer Hugo Gonzalez is expected to make his 2020-2021 NCAA debut on Friday when the team takes on USC at the Spieker Aquatics Complex in Berkeley.
The meet will be the front of a back-to-back dual meet for the defending NCAA Champions against the Trojans, with another dual meet happening Saturday.
Gonzalez spent the fall semester at home training in his native Spain. That trip home saw him hit lifetime bests in 7 events. That includes the 50 free (22.93), 100 free (49.07), 50 breast (27.68), and 100 breast (1:00.12) in short course meters; plus the 50 back (25.08) and 100 back (53.68) in long course.
That time in the 100 backstroke ranks him 12th in the world this season.
There was some uncertainty about whether he’d be able to return to Cal to train, with both California and Spain seeing spikes in coronavirus infections, but Cal head coach Dave Durden has confirmed that Gonzalez will race this weekend.
Gonzalez, a 2016 Spanish Olympian, started his college career at Auburn, where as a freshman he was a two-event All American and the SEC Champion in the 400 IM (3:35.76). He set 3 Auburn school records as a freshman: 200 back (1:39.05), 200 IM (1:40.67), and 400 IM (3:35.76). He was named the SEC Male Freshman of the Year, the first swimmer in the storied history of the Auburn program to earn that award.
That was the 2017-2018 season. He then transferred to Virginia Tech, though he never actually competed for the Hokies. There was some controversy about whether Gonzalez ever attended class at Virginia Tech, which would trigger a waiting period before he could begin competing for Cal, but he wound up making his debut for the Golden Bears in the 2019-2020 season. He won the 400 IM at the Pac-12 Championships in a new Meet Record of 3:36.60, and was 3rd in the 200 back.
While the 2020 NCAA Championships were canceled because of the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, he finished the season with the NCAA’s fastest 400 IM, 4th-fastest 200 breast (1:51.63), and 8th-fastest 200 back (1:39.66).
Gonzalez’s presence for Cal could mean upwards of 40 individual points at the NCAA Championships for the Cal Bears as they fight for the NCAA title against Texas in what is expected to be a very-tight meet.
Cal has raced only 2 meets this season, both in November against Stanford. This weekend’s meets against USC, scored separately, will be the team’s first full-bore competitions. Those are the only meets remaining on the Cal men’s schedule before the Pac-12 Championships scheduled for March 3-6.
That meet is supposed to take place at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, Washington, but reports are that the conference is shopping for a new host location – KCAC hasn’t reopened since last March.
Gonzalez has been pre-selected for the Spanish Olympic team for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Told ya!
HuggyBear is a monster – GREAT GUY, exceptional worker and advanced thinker (genius). He will do very well.
I wonder what subject he’s majoring in and how his transcript looks? How’s he doing on meeting his major’s requirements? Is he getting good advice from his academic advisor? It’s been a tough 10 months for college students.
Something rubs me wrong way about Hugo, I find it difficult to root for the guy.
From someone that was on a team with him, he’s a hard worker and a nice kid. Maybe don’t judge someone you don’t personally know?
Cue the “it’s been 84 years” meme
Good race with Carson
And Casas if he swims it
Thanks much, Braden! Do you know if his 53.++ LCM 100 back can be used to qualify for NCAA purposes/qualification?
You can only qualify for NCAAs with short course swims. However, I think there’s some rule that swimmers have to swim a certain number of competitions to be eligible to swim at NCAAs, so in that case, a LCM swim at a legitimate meet would probably count, but he would have to be associated with Cal. I could be totally off, but I’m sure Braden can verify or correct anything I said.
Thank you, JCO…appreciate that. I was under the impression that altitude times, SCM-, and LCM-converted times do translate. Good to get your input here…thx.
Converted times do count towards qualifying: https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/championships/sports/swimdive/d1/2020-21D1XSW_QualifyingStandards.pdf
There’s actually several times currently in the NCAA database that are converted LCM times.
Gonna have to change those Power Rankings
Yes! So the Indiana Hoosiers are number 1! I completely agree.
Sir you have my utmost respect. This has to be the deepest satire account of all time and I am all here for it.
Have you learned nothing from Guerra previously? There is no depth deep enough that IU could fall that true fans cannot see IU as the best
Hoosiers are obviously #1, they have Balake Peperoni on their team after all!
….no they don’t.