Reece Whitley Breaks 2 Pool Records as Cal Men Top Arizona State

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California swimming set four pool records in the 200-yard medley relay, 100 breaststroke, 200 breaststroke and 400 individual medley on the way to a 160-119 men’s dual meet victory over Arizona State on Senior Day at Spieker Aquatics Complex. Sophomore Reece Whitley stole the show by breaking the 100 breast (52.77) and 200 breast (1:53.65) pool records in addition to swimming a 23.85 split on the second leg of the Bears’ pool record swim in the 200 medley relay (1:25.14).

Junior Daniel Carr and seniors Pawel Sendyk and Michael Jensen joined Whitley on the 200-medley relay.

Redshirt sophomore Hugo Gonzalez recorded Cal’s fourth pool record of the afternoon with a 3:44.51 finish in the 400 IM. With Cal having already clinched the dual meet victory at the time of the 400 IM, Gonzalez swam the event as an exhibition.

“I love each and every one of our nine seniors,” Reece Whitley said after the meet. “Coach Durden told us to push for our best performances so we could send our seniors out the right way, and that’s really what I wanted to do. We are coming off a long camp at [the United States Olympic Training Center] and haven’t really slowed down since returning to Berkeley, but we still collectively had some really good times this weekend.’

No. 2 (CSCAA) Cal improved to 3-0 in dual meets this season and has won nine consecutive dual meets since Oct. 3, 2018.

Cal’s new 200 medley relay pool record broke the previous low of 1:25.61, held by two different quartets of Ryan Murphy, Connor Hoppe, Matthew Josa and Sendyk (Feb. 18, 2017) and Murphy, Hoppe, Justin Lynch and Sendyk (Feb. 3, 2017).

Whitley shaved 15 tenths of a second off the previous 100 breast pool record (52.92), held by Arizona’s Kevin Cordes since 2014. Whitley then smashed the previous 200 breast pool record of 1:56.22, which was set by Stanford’s Gary Marshall in 2005. Gonzalez lowered the 400 IM pool record by more than four seconds (3:48.74); it was previously held by Arizona’s Cory Chitwood dating back to 2012.

“The good thing about this weekend – especially swimming on back-to-back days against two well-coached teams – was that we got to see a bunch of guys in some different races,” said Cal head coach Dave Durden. “Maybe just a couple guys swam the same events between Friday and Saturday but for the most part we got to see four, six, seven different swims.

“The last two days were important, but really our last two weeks have been more important. Our guys have done a great job transitioning from training at the OTC in Colorado Springs to coming back to Berkeley and swimming at sea level again.”

In the final home meet of his career, senior diver Connor Callahan excelled on the boards with an NCAA Zone Championship-qualifying score of 324.75 in the 3-meter. He added a 309.00 score in the 1-meter, which marked a season-best.

Other standout performances included two wins apiece for Trenton Julian (9:03.65 in the 1000 free; 4:20.85 in the 500 free), Ryan Hoffer (19.52 in the 50 free; 43.19 in the 100 free) and Daniel Carr (46.44 in the 100 back; 1:43.27 in the 200 back). Zheng Wen Quah added a 1:42.54 win in the 200 fly and Bryce Mefford touched first in the 200 free (1:36.70).

Prior to the meet’s swimming events, Cal recognized its nine seniors – Karl Arvidsson, Callahan, Shane Forker, Jensen, Quah, Sendyk, Andy Song, Jack Xie and Ethan Young – during a honorary ceremony, alongside the women’s team’s six seniors.

But it was Reece Whitley who stole the show.

— The above press release was posted by Swimming World in conjunction with Cal Swimming. For press releases and advertising inquiries please contact Advertising@SwimmingWorld.com.

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