Reece Whitley Posts 1:53 200 Breast in Cal v. Stanford Triple Distance Duel

Reece Whitley posted the nation's fastest 200 breast on Friday. Photo Courtesy: Connor Trimble

Reece Whitley posts nation’s top time in the 200 breast.

California men’s swimming and diving continued its steady progress through the fall season as the Bears earned five overall wins and swept a pair of relays against Stanford in the un-scored annual Triple Distance Meet at Spieker Aquatics Complex on Friday afternoon. A unique meet that tests both teams’ depth, the Triple Distance Meet features three distances – 50, 100 and 200 yards – of each stroke, as well as a 200 medley relay and 200 free relay.

Sophomore Reece Whitley posted the nation’s fastest time in the 200 breast with a 1:53.49.

The meet was not scored. Cal and Stanford will swim a scored duel meet in Palo Alto on February 22.

RESULTS

Cal Men’s Swimming and Diving Press Release

Three Bears – Zheng Wen Quah, Bryce Mefford and Reece Whitley – won all three of their respective events to highlight the afternoon.

Quah cruised to wins in the butterfly events, taking the 50 in 20.81, the 100 in 45.98 and the 200 in 1:43.47 for a total time of 2:50.26, more than eight seconds ahead of Stanford’s Will Macmillan. In the backstroke, Mefford tallied wins in all three events (21.98 in the 50, 47.26 in the 100 and 1:44.68 in the 200) and posted a total time of 2:53.92 to beat out teammate Daniel Carr (2:55.87).

Reece Whitley dominated all three breaststroke races (24.59 in the 50, 52.93 in the 100 and 1:53.49 in the 200) and finished with an overall time of 3:11.01.

Michael Jensen edged Stanford’s Alberto Mestre and Mason Gonzalez and teammate Ryan Hoffer for the overall freestyle victory thanks to an impressive showing in the 200 free event. The senior swam the 200 free in 1:37.77 to come from behind and beat out the Stanford duo and Hoffer, the latter of which entered the final event as the leader with wins in the 50 (19.57) and 100 (43.88).

Hugo Gonzalez and Chris Jhong traded blows in the individual medley with Gonzalez winning the 100 (49.46) and Jhong taking the 200 (1:49.25). It was Gonzalez who took the overall victory, however, thanks to a 3:48.90 finish in the 400.

Cal closed out the day with wins in both relay events. Carr, Whitley, Pawel Sendyk and Nate Biondi won the 200 medley relay in 1:27.02, besting Stanford by 1.43 seconds. The quartet of Hoffer, Jensen, Quah and Mefford then wrapped up the afternoon with a winning time of 1:19.70 in the 200 free relay.

COACH DURDEN’S TAKE

“Today was a strong performance overall, it was good to race against someone other than ourselves,” said head coach David Durden. “We’ve gone through a long stretch with our focus being on training, so getting up and racing probably felt a bit uncomfortable for our guys. It was good for them to experience that today.

“Because we didn’t go into this meet with quantitative expectations, one of the challenges we tried to work through was the pace of the meet. Our goal was to have good communication amongst our group to understand how everyone was performing throughout the meet.”

Stanford Men’s Press Release

Grant Shoults captured the 1,000-yard freestyle in Stanford’s annual exhibition meet with California on Friday at the Legends Aquatic Center.

It was the Cardinal’s penultimate competition of the fall, an annual unscored meet against California featuring the two longtime rivals. Shoults (9:05.69) earned Stanford’s lone win of the day in the 1,000 free.

Will Macmillan (21.84) paced the Cardinal in the first event of the day, the 50-yard butterfly, finishing second. Benjamin Ho (22.55) was Stanford’s fastest swimmer in the 50-yard backstroke in third place before Hank Poppe (25.51) was the runner up in the 50-yard breaststroke. Alberto Mestre (20.08) placed third in the final 50-yard event of the day, the 50-yard freestyle.

Johannes Calloni (53.43) was the fastest Cardinal in the 100-yard individual medley, placing fifth. In the 200-yard freestyle, Shoults (1:37.40) finished second before Macmillan (48.39) finished second in the 100-yard butterfly.

Ho (48.51) led Stanford with third place in the 100-yard backstroke and Poppe (54.18) placed second in the 100-yard breaststroke. Mestre (44.72) finished third to out touch Mason Gonzalez (44.95) in the 100-yard freestyle and Calloni was once against Stanford’s fastest swimmer in an individual medley, placing fifth in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 1:54.27.

Macmillan (1:48.61) paced the Cardinal in the 200-yard butterfly, Ho (1:46.67) was Stanford’s fastest swimmer in the 200-yard backstroke and Poppe (1:59.19) finished second in the 200-yard breaststroke ahead of third-place teammate Daniel Roy (2:01.42).

In the 200-yard freestyle, Gonzalez (1:39.71) finished runner-up ahead of third-place Mestre (1:40.82)

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