{"id":628400,"date":"2025-12-05T19:51:31","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T02:51:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=628400"},"modified":"2025-12-05T19:51:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T02:51:31","slug":"yamato-okadome-goes-50-48-in-100-breaststroke-as-cal-continues-dominance-at-minnesota-invite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/yamato-okadome-goes-50-48-in-100-breaststroke-as-cal-continues-dominance-at-minnesota-invite\/","title":{"rendered":"Yamato Okadome Goes 50.48 in 100 Breaststroke as Cal Continues Dominance at Minnesota Invite"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yamato Okadome Goes 50.48 in 100 Breaststroke as Cal Continues Dominance at Minnesota Invite<\/strong><\/p>\n

This year’s Cal men’s might lack some of the star power of past years, but sophomore\u00a0Yamato Okadome<\/strong> continues to make inroads as one of the best breaststrokers in college swimming. Following a pair of A-final finishes at last year’s NCAA Championships, Okadome is poised to enter 2026 as the third-fastest 100 breaststroker this college season.<\/p>\n

Friday evening at the Minnesota Invitational, Okadome dominated the event in 50.48, which sits behind only Texas teammates\u00a0Nate Germonprez<\/strong> (49.71) and\u00a0Campbell McKean<\/strong> (50.37) in the national rankings. Okadome dipped under his previous best time of 50.62 from last season. He was followed by a trio of his Cal teammates, with\u00a0Luca Gissendaner<\/strong> second (52.06),\u00a0Zachary Tan<\/strong> third (52.08) and\u00a0Hank Rivers<\/strong> fourth (52.52).<\/p>\n

The Cal men swept all five individual events contested in the session, with a particularly impressive swim coming from\u00a0Evan Petty<\/strong> in the 100 backstroke. He clocked 44.83 to become the ninth-fastest swimmer in the country this season. Teammate\u00a0Casper Puggaard<\/strong> took second (46.00) with Harvard’s\u00a0Adriano Arioti<\/strong> third (47.10).<\/p>\n

Luca Battaglini<\/strong> already topped the 50 freestyle in Minneapolis, and he won the 100 butterfly Friday in 45.43. Just behind was teammate Samuel Quarles<\/strong> (45.45) with Minnesota’s Jacob Johnson<\/strong> (45.98) third.\u00a0Huberto Najera<\/strong> dominated the 400 IM in 3:41.59 ahead of Cal teammates Ryan Erisman<\/strong> (3:46.37) and Freddy Klein<\/strong> (3:46.52).\u00a0Keaton Jones<\/strong> put up a dominant 200 free time of 1:33.62 as the Bears’\u00a0Thackston McMullan<\/strong> placed second (1:35.32) and Harvard’s David Greeley<\/strong> was third (1:35.83).<\/p>\n

The Golden Bears’ team of Battaglini, Okadome, Puggaard and\u00a0Nans Mazellier<\/strong> finished first in the 200 medley relay in 1:22.33, with Battaglini blasting a 20.59 leadoff split and Okadome going 22.70 on breaststroke. UNLV placed second in 1:25.58 with Minnesota third (1:25.97). With Cal absent from the 800 free relay, the Harvard team of Greeley,\u00a0Marre Gattnar<\/strong>,\u00a0Sonny Wang<\/strong> and\u00a0Evan Croley<\/strong> won in 6:27.91 over Minnesota (6:29.62) and Denver (6:38.44).<\/p>\n