While most Cal students spent Monday digging for scarves and avoiding the outdoors, the Cal men’s swim team spent the afternoon back in the pool. The squad returned to Berkeley after a grueling weekend of competition at the AT&T Winter National Championships in Knoxville, Tenn. The Bears placed second in team scores behind Michigan, a perennial adversary for the Bears.
“I think on Friday, we kind of felt the effects of traveling all day Wednesday and then getting up and being in the pool all day on Thursday,” said head coach David Durden. “By the time Saturday came around, we had a nice rhythm to what we were doing.”
Some of Saturday’s highlights included the Bears’ performances in the relay finals, which included the 400 free relay. Consisting of freshman Ryan Murphy, sophomore Tyler Messerschmidt, junior Seth Stubblefield and senior Fabio Gimondi, the squad won the event with a time of 2:51.16.
Cal also placed second in the 800 free relay, behind the performances of Messerschmidt, freshman Long Gutierrez, sophomore Trent Williams and senior Jeremy Bagshaw. The Bears’ most notable individual performances belonged to sophomore Josh Prenot, who won silver in the 400 IM finals, and freshman Ryan Murphy, who was awarded bronze in the 100 back.
“I think the 400 and 800 frees were our best relays, especially from a coaching perspective,” Durden said. “We probably didn’t have our four best guys in the 800 free, but it was important for us to mix and match and take a look at different swimmers in different relays — especially for NCAAs in the spring.”
Durden acknowledged that the long travel hours may have played a part in his swimmers’ performances. The team also had not competed since early November, when they faced Stanford in the Triple Distance Meet.
The multiple-week layover for the Bears may have contributed to their improved performances in the longer events. Durden observed that Bagshaw’s mile, freshman Hunter Cobleigh’s 200 breaststroke and sophomore Jacob Pebley’s 200 backstroke seemed stronger than their shorter swims. As swimmers rediscovered their rhythms through the weekend, their performances appeared markedly better.
“As a coach, I like to see our last day be the best day,” Durden said. “Seeing the guys swim better in the longer swims was encouraging to see through the course of the weekend. For us as a team, that plays into how we have to set up our NCAA meets in the spring. On our last day, we’ll have to be at our strongest.”
The meet served as a natural checkpoint as the team heads into the second half of a successful 2013 campaign. For coaches, it was an opportunity to observe their teams compete in a format similar to the NCAA Championships in the spring and to see where certain swimmers succeeded or where improvements must be made.
The most difficult aspect of the meet was the level of competition the Bears faced. With Olympic medalists such as Matt Grevers and Cal alumnus Nathan Adrian swimming, the strength of competition was incomparable to the dual meets Cal mostly faced through the fall. If the Bears hope to make noise when conference season comes around, facing great swimmers in the fall can pay dividends in the second half of the season.
“When you have older athletes, they’re just a little more experienced, a bit better — they tend to be more physically, mentally and race mature,” Durden said. “You don’t win championships in December, but you can create habits from the pool that will help you in the spring.”
Michelle Lee covers men’s swim. Contact her at michellelee@dailycal.org.
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