Seniors Lead Bears Past Stanford In Home Finale
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The Bears honored their senior class in a pre-meet ceremony on Saturday.

Seniors Lead Bears Past Stanford In Home Finale

Seliskar Wins Twice; Three Pool Records Fall

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BERKELEY – The Cal men's swimming and diving team set three pool records – including one by senior Andrew Seliskar in his final home dual meet – and the Golden Bears rolled past rival Stanford 172-122 on Saturday at Spieker Aquatics Complex.

Seliskar, the decorated and versatile swimmer who has been to nine NCAA Championships finals throughout his career, raced the 200 butterfly in a time of 1:41.89, breaking the old pool mark of 1:43.91.

"There is a lot that people see and appreciate about Andrew's performances. What I am really impressed with is the process that he has moved through to get to this point," Cal head coach Dave Durden said. "There is a lot more to it than results on a page. The process for him to get to this point in his career and the decisions that he's made and how he has gone about it has been really impressive. That's what's more important than what he did in the 100 fly."

Sophomore Sean Grieshop set the Spieker record in the 400 individual medley with a mark of 3:48.36 while the Bears' 200 freestyle relay team of Pawel Sendyk, Ryan Hoffer, Seliskar and Michael Jensen set a new pool standard with a time of 1:17.75.

The Bears (6-0) won 11 individual events, with Seliskar the only multiple winner. He also took the 100 butterfly with a mark of 46.05.

Cal honored its six-member senior class before the meet as they played in their final home meet. Two other seniors won individual races, with Nick Norman taking the 1,000 freestyle in a time of 8:55.28 and Carson Sand capturing the winning the 100 breaststroke in 53.33.

As part of Senior Day, Durden allows his seniors to pick which events they want to swim.

"Our seniors do a nice job of picking the events they want to swim," Durden said. "They're not swimming an event they don't want to do. So that makes it easy for them to focus on what they are trying to accomplish. I want them to feel good about what they are racing."

The Bears will now begin preparations for the postseason, with the Pac-12 Championships taking place Mar. 6-9 in Federal Way, Wash.

"Championship meet season is very different than dual meet season," Durden said. "The most important thing now is not the four hours we have in the pool together. It's the 20 hours that we don't see them - their rest, their preparation. It's very much about them getting themselves ready to go while still being good student-athletes here on campus."
 
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