ATLANTA, Ga. - When it came time to make a good first impression at the 2016 NCAA Championships, the Cal swimming team wasted no time getting revved up for its final meet of the season.

The quartet of Long Gutierrez, Trent Williams, Andrew Seliskar and Jacob Pebley lowered the school record in the 800-yard freestyle relay by over four seconds, clocking a time of 6:11.30 to place fourth in the first race of the week at Georgia Tech's McAuley Aquatic Center.

Texas won the race with a time of 6:08.03, followed by NC State in 6:09.58 and Florida in 6:09.84. All three times were under the previous NCAA record of 6:09.85 set by Michigan in 2014. Georgia, which won the B final in a time of 6:12.54, finished fifth.

Gutierrez set the tone for the Bears Wednesday, putting himself fourth early on the leadoff leg. He left the pool in fourth and Williams held that position, sending Seliskar into the water with a shot to move up. He did just that, moving Cal into second at one point and putting Pebley into the race in fourth position. The senior from Corvallis, Ore. held that spot to the final touch, giving Cal a time of 6:11.30 that bested the previous school record of 6:15.70 held by the 2012 team of Tom Shields, Sam Metz, Will Hamilton and Ben Hinshaw.

"We had some options in that relay between about six guys and how we were going to manage that," Cal head coach David Durden said. "We were thinking kind of in that 3-4-5 range in terms of a finish and we split the difference and ended up fourth with that. The splits were really solid all the way across the board.

"To see a 32.3 out of Andrew in his first NCAA meet, just getting up in that relay and it's not really a comfortable event for him yet but he did a fantastic job. Pebley on the end was good, just maybe over-raced that first half just a little bit. Long led us off extremely well and Trent was good. Trent typically gets better in meets like this, so that's a good start for him too. All four guys, I'm really proud of them."

Cal really gets into action on Thursday with the first full day of competition at McAuley Aquatic Center. The 200 freestyle relay, 500 freestyle, 200 IM, 50 freestyle and 400 medley relay will all be contested. Action continues Friday and wraps up Saturday.

"Tomorrow, the meet begins. This is kind of an appetizer. The meat and potatoes start in the prelims of the first day," Durden said. "We've got two relays, three individual events so we've got to advance those relays in the finals and that's going to be a challenge. We've got to take our individual swims and improve upon where we've been. It's as simple as that. We can't control anything else. We certainly couldn't control three teams under the NCAA record. That was really darn fast. It was a good start for our meet."