NCAA Swim Meet of the Week: Cal Men Ready to Play Spoiler in Pursuit of Repeat NCAA Title

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Reece Whitley will be looking to help Cal win its second straight national title. - Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

NCAA Swim Meet of the Week

Championship season is here! The Division II NCAA qualifying period concluded this past weekend as this marked the end of conference championships for Division II schools, with the NCAAs coming up in two weeks. Northern Michigan women and Grand Valley men won their respective GLIAC Championship titles as those school’s top dogs saved themselves of a full taper for the big show in two weeks.

This week’s NCAA Swim Meets of the Week focused on the last round of conference championships in Division II and III as the psych sheets for nationals will be coming out soon. The Division I qualifying period is still open for the next couple of weeks with two more rounds of conference championships, but this past weekend was also the very last weekend of duel meets as only Stanford and Cal, and USC and Utah swam in non-championship meets this past weekend.

NCAA Swim Meet of the Week Division I: Cal Thwarts Stanford From Upset; Are We Sure They Aren’t National Title Favorites?

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Sean Grieshop. Photo Courtesy: Connor Trimble

Cal vs. Stanford results

We highlighted the Cal – Stanford women’s meet last week as the meet of the week and the Cardinal showcased why they have won the last three national titles in a dominating win over their Golden Bear rivals. This week our NCAA swim meet of the week was the Cal – Stanford men’s meet and it was Cal’s turn to show why they should still be considered in the running for the national title.

At the halfway point of the season, Cal lined up against Texas at the Minnesota Invite in December and it was expected to be a tight battle across the three and a half day meet. But Texas completely dominated the Golden Bears, and the Longhorns became the prohibited favorites for NCAAs.

But Cal was missing key pieces in Zheng Quah and Hugo Gonzalez at that invite, and will have them both in 30 days at NCAAs in Indianapolis.

After this past weekend, are we sure we are going to pencil in Texas as the title team this year?

Yes, the Longhorns were impressive and seemed to have no weak spot across the board. But Cal is by no means “weak” this year.

Cal won last year’s title because of their depth in the sprint events and the lack of any glaring weaknesses.

That seems to be the case once again this year. In fact, Cal might actually be stronger.

Sophomore Reece Whitley looks to be the clear favorite to take both the 100 and 200 breaststroke national titles at the end of the year as he won the 100 (52.94) and 200 breast (1:52.72) on Saturday against Stanford. To show how much Whitley has improved the last few years, he beat Stanford sophomore Daniel Roy by four seconds in the 200 and both of those guys were around the same time when they exited high school in 2018 just two years ago.

Of course short course is much different than long course and Roy should still be an All-American in this event by season’s end, but Whitley really looks to have made a major jump from last year. He was fourth and fifth at NCAAs a year ago in the 100 and 200 respectively but could be standing on top of the podium this season, and may have a shot at getting the American record in the 200 breast that is currently a mind boggling 1:47.9 set in 2017.

Junior Sean Grieshop took two second place finishes to Stanford’s Grant Shoults in the 1000 (8:59.53) and 500 (4:24.13) in the NCAA swim meet of the week but had a much better showing than he had at the Minnesota Invite in December, where he was well behind the best in the nation. Grieshop was instrumental in Cal’s title last season as he was second in both the 500 free and 400 IM and also was an All-American in the 1650. He was slightly off his game in December but has re-emerged this past weekend as a contender in the distance events come NCAAs. Of course that might change with Florida’s Kieran Smith and Bobby Finke both breaking American records this past weekend at SECs, but if Cal is to win back to back titles then Grieshop will need to come up clutch by getting in three A-Finals again.

Cal also has the backstroke duo of Daniel Carr and Bryce Mefford as Carr won the 100 (46.08) and Mefford won the 200 (1:42.06), giving them a 1-2 punch in both events. They have the sprint duo of Ryan Hoffer and Pawel Sendyk with the former winning both the 50 (19.25) and 100 (42.99) freestyle on Saturday. They have the butterfly duo of Zheng Quah and Trent Julian who rank highly in Division I in the 200 fly.

Hugo Gonzalez can swim any number of events, and has been primarily an IM’er this season, filling any sort of void left behind by the graduation of Andrew Seliskar and Michael Thomas. When looking at this team on paper, there doesn’t seem to be any weaknesses. Grieshop was the only one to not win an individual event against Stanford, but he is a seasoned veteran that has performed on the national stage and has come up big in the past.

Texas will enter the NCAA Championships in a month as the heavy favorites, but maybe Cal will put up a better fight than we thought?

With all the attention on Texas for this year’s title, we seem to be almost forgetting about the defending national champions who have returned an even stronger team this year. Before the season, we highlighted the 25 best men’s swimmers in Division I and eight of them were Cal Bears. They really only lost Seliskar and Thomas from their team a year ago, so why are they being written off all of a sudden? NCAAs will be a closer meet than some may think between Texas and Cal.

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Stanford’s Grant Shoults. Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Stanford does have a solid team ahead of championship season. They have Roy who was fifth in the 100 (54.98) and second in the 200 breast (1:56.91). They have Hank Poppe, who was second in the 100 breast at 53.51 and is one of the top guys in the nation in that event. Jack LeVant is also a solid 200 freestyler that made the Pan Pac team in 2018.

Shoults sat out last season to nurse a shoulder injury and looks just like the swimmer he was before the injury when he made the Pan Pac team in 2018. On Saturday, he collected the only two wins for the Cardinal in the 1000 (8:55.10) and 500 (4:22.24) and almost seems good as new. His 1000 was his best time since he’s been at Stanford and the 500 was his fastest effort since he swam a 4:17 against Cal two years ago.

Stanford has struggled to get back among the nation’s elite the last couple years, but have a team capable of a top ten finish this season with potential A-Final scorers in Shoults, Poppe and Roy.

These two teams will see each other again at the Pac-12 Championships next week in Federal Way, and again at NCAAs in Indianapolis in 30 days.

Perhaps both schools could celebrate national champions by the season’s end.

NCAA Swim Meet of the Week Division II: Northern Michigan Women, Grand Valley Men Take GLIAC Titles

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Rachel Helm. Photo Courtesy: Northern Michigan Athletics

NCAA Swim Meet of the Week Division II: GLIAC Championships Results

Northern Michigan won the GLIAC women’s team title led by senior Rachel Helm, who won titles in the 200 IM and 200 back. She was upset in the final of the 100 back, getting beat by Wayne State’s Ashlen Michalski (55.41).

Helm was slower than what she swam at the mid-season invitational, which suggests she is saving a full taper for the NCAA Championships in three weeks. Her 200 back was only a 1:58.90, which was a second off her 1:57.9 at the mid-season invite that put her third in Division II at the halfway point of the season. She was safely on her way to the NCAA Championships anyway so a full taper was not needed at the GLIAC Championships.

Regardless, she would have wanted to put on a good performance for her team as they went on to win the conference title in our NCAA swim meet of the week.

Northern Michigan won the team title with 927.5 points ahead of Wayne State with 778.5 points behind wins from freshmen Michaela Nelson in the 100 free (51.50) and Meritxell Font-Cantarero in the 200 fly (2:03.38) as well as junior Maggie Vaitkus in the 50 free (23.51).

Grand Valley dominated the men’s meet with 1025 points well ahead of second place Wayne State (761).

Like Helm in the women’s meet, Grand Valley’s best Harry Shalamon was off his season bests in a couple events as last year’s 200 back national champ won the 200 IM (1:46.71) and 200 back (1:44.97). He was also beat to the wall in the 100 back (47.58) in getting touched out by Northern Michigan’s Lajos Budai (47.57).

Shalamon finished 1-2 with Grand Valley teammate Oscar Saura Armegnol in the 100 butterfly as the latter also won the 200 butterfly with a 1:48.26.

Grand Valley Lakers also won three titles from Jesse Goodyear, who swept the distance events with wins in the 500 (4:27.08), 1000 (9:10.35) and 1650 (15:23.04).

Meet of the Week Division III: Williams Claims 18th NESCAC Title

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Jamie Lovette won the 200 & 500 free in our NCAA Swim Meet of the Week for Division III. Photo Courtesy: Williams College Swim and Dive Instagram (@eph_swimdive)

NESCAC Championships Results

Williams won its 18th NESCAC championship title over the weekend in our NCAA Swim Meet of the Week with 1987.5 points ahead of Tufts with 1797.5 points. Junior Jamie Lovette was instrumental in the Ephs win as he won the 500 (4:29.27) and 200 free (1:38.13) and was also on two winning relays in the 800 free (6:34.37) and 400 medley (3:15.36).

The Williams men fought off a tough Tufts team led by sprinter Roger Gu, who is one of the best sprinters in Division III. Gu won the 50 (19.96) and 100 free (43.87) and also anchored the Jumbos’ 200 free (1:20.35), 200 medley (1:28.12) and 400 free (2:59.52) relay wins. Tufts also got wins from distance swimmer John Lalime, who won the 1650 (15:38.87) and the non-NCAA 1000 (9:22.89).

But Williams used its impressive depth at the top to sweep all the events on Saturday and did not have any repeat winners except for Lovette in the 200 and 500 free. That is some serious depth that Williams has moving forward to NCAAs where they will shoot for another top five finish.

Out of all of the events they won on Saturday night, Williams has a swimmer ranked in the top eight nationally in every single event. Sean Tan won the 400 IM (4:00.78), David Pearcy won the 100 fly (48.42), Liam Sullivan won the 100 breast (54.40) and Nick Whitcomb won the 100 back (48.63), and all of those guys have a chance to make the A-Final come NCAAs in four weeks.

With that extensive depth across the board, Williams will be set for the next few years, as only senior Lucca Delcompare won an individual event this weekend with his 1:48.60 in the 200 butterfly. The Ephs are a young team and that was evident with freshmen Sullivan and Jacob Grover sweeping the breaststroke events and sophomore Sean Tan winning the 400 IM.

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Katherine Karaconstantis LaLime

Williams has not won 18 straight. Tufts men won two years ago!!

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