Cal Men's Swim Extends a Remarkable Streak at the NCAA Meet

Cal came up short of overtaking Texas for the top spot as the NCAA Men’s Swimming & Diving Championships wrapped up on Saturday night, but the Golden Bears kept alive a remarkable streak of success.

With its runner-up finish at Federal Way, Wash., the Bears have secured a top-2 spot at the NCAA nationals for an almost hard-to-believe 15 consecutive years. 

Texas won for the first time since 2021, scoring 490 points to 471 for Cal. Indiana was third with 459 points.

The Bears nearly pulled off their seventh NCAA crown under coach Dave Durden over those 15 seasons, rallying from 55.5 points down after Friday by outscoring the Longhorns 158.5 to 122 on the final day.

Lucas Henveaux, a graduate transfer who swam in the Paris Olympics for Belgium, placed third in the 1,650-yard freestyle with a time of 14:27.62 to start the day for the Bears.

Cal made a serious move on Texas in the 200 backstroke, where senior Destin Lasco placed second at 1:36.41, senior Gabriel Jett was third at 1:36.76 and graduate student Mewen Tomac touched fourth at 1:36.90. Those three provided the Bears with 48 points and cut the Longhorns’ lead from 69.5 points to 38.5 points.

Senior Jack Alexy played fourth in the 100 free at 40.36 and Yamato Okadome, a freshman from Japan, was sixth in the 200 breast at 1:50.23.

Grad student Dare Rose followed that with a second-place finish in the 200 butterfly at 1:38.04, giving the Bears 17 more points.

The meet ended with Cal foursome of Alexy, Bjorn Seeliger, Matthew Jensen and Lasco nabbing fourth place in the 400 relay at 2:44.59.

FRIDAY: Rose broke his own program record with a clocking 43.52 to finish second in the 100 butterfly. Rose is the only Cal swimmer to have broken 44 seconds in the event.

Henveaux placed third in the 400 individual medley with a personal-best tie of 3:36.22 while Jett was third in the 200 free with a clocking of 1:30.08 that is the second-fastest in Cal history. Alexy was two spots back in fifth at 1:30.28.

The 400 medley relay team of Tomac, Okadome, Rose and Lasco placed fourth with a time of 2:59.12 that ranks second-fastest in Cal history.

Tomac and Lasco went 4-5 in the 100 back, with the former swimming a personal-best mark of 43.94 to climb to No. 3 all-time on Cal’s list. Lasco touched in 44.10.

Okadome was fifth for the Bears in the 100 breaststroke at 50.69.

Texas seemed in command after Friday’s events with 368 points, compared to 312.5 for Cal, with Indiana close behind at 304.

THURSDAY: The Bears had a finisher among the top-5 in all four finals races. Leading the way was Lasco, who was second in the 200 individual medley at 1:37.98.

Henveaux broke his own program record in the 500 free, clocking 4:06.74 to finish third. But Texas made some headway in the event, outscoring the Bears 47 to 17.

The 200 free relay team of Alexy, Seeliger, Jensen and Lasco swam 1:14.12 — the second-fastest time in program history — to secure fourth place.

Minutes earlier, Alexy placed fifth in the 50 free with a time of 18.48.

The Bears remained in second place with 159.5 points but the Longhorns extended their lead at 190, and Indiana crept closer with 144 points in third place.

WEDNESDAY: The Bears started fast on the meet’s first day, winning the 4x200 freestyle relay. The foursome of Alexy, Jett, Lasco and Henveaux defended its title in the event, swimming  5:59.75 — the first team to crack 6 minutes while setting NCAA, championship meet and U.S. Open records. 

Jett, Lasco and Henveaux all clocked personal-best legs in the race. 

The quartet of Seeliger, Okadome, Rose and Alexy  finished third in the 200 medley relay with a program-record time of 1:20.76. 

Through two events on Day 1, Texas had a 74-72 lead over the second-place Bears.

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