BERKELEY – In the 200-yard medley relay Saturday, the day's opening event, four relay teams finished under the previous pool record. That trend continued throughout the afternoon as the No. 1 Arizona State and No. 3 California men's swimming & diving teams combined to set 13 new pool records at Spieker Aquatics Complex. In the end, the Bears and Sun Devils battled to a 150-150 draw.
 
"To be honest, I don't know our pool records, but understanding the number of quality athletes that we had in the pool today and how Arizona State swims this time of year, we anticipated how fast they would swim," Cal director of swimming & diving David Durden said. "I was impressed with how our guys performed, and really performed from start to finish. "I thought we would be competitive but not this fast."
 
Cal's 200 medley relay set the tempo, with the Bears lineup of Bjorn Seeliger, Liam Bell, Dare Rose, and Jack Alexy finishing with a time of 1:22.87 – the second-fastest time in program history and new pool record. Alexy's split of 18.44 helped the Bears drop 1.20 seconds off their top time this season.
 
The Bears got a big boost from the diving contingent. Sophomore Joshua Thai won both the 1-meter and 3-meter dive, , finishing with a score of 337.65 in the 1-meter event. Geoffery Vavitsas placed second with a score of 307.35 while freshman Jack Clark took fourth with a score of 286.50.
 
The Bears swept the Sun Devils in the 3-meter dive. Thai and Vavitsas once again went one and two, scoring 365.40 and 355.80, respectively. Conrad Eck captured third with a personal-best score of 312.68.
 
In the 200 freestyle, Gabriel Jett dropped 0.39 seconds off his top time this season to finish with a pool record time of 1:31.78. Robin Hanson finished third with a time of 1:33.33.
 
In the 100 backstroke, Destin Lasco out-touched ASU's Hubert Kos with a time of 44.80 – breaking his own pool record of 45.21.
 
ASU's Leon Marchand earned the first of his three individual wins in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 51.37. The Bears' depth in the event was displayed with strong races from Liam Bell and Jacob Soderlund, who finished in second and third, respectively. Bell had a season-best time of 51.70 and Soderlund registered a time of 51.88 – both improved on their NCAA B qualifying marks.
 
In the two most dominant races of the day for Cal, the 50 free and 100 free, the Bears flexed their muscles. In the 50 free, Seeliger out-touched Alexy with a pool record time of 18.92. Alexy tied the previous pool record time at 18.97. It was Alexy's turn in the 100, getting the better of Seeliger by 0.01. Alexy's time of 41.40 is the new record at Speiker and a season-best time. Seeliger finished second with a time of 41.41.
 
Trailing by five points in the final event, the 400 free relay, the Sun Devils took first with a time of 1:15.07. Cal's quartet of Alexy, Seeliger, Bell, and Hanson finished second with a time of 1:15.55.
 
Before the meet, the Bears honored its 12 seniors and graduate students on Senior Day. The 12 seniors are Forrest Frazier, Hawk, Jensen, Tyler Kopp, Lasco, Jack Meehan, Dare Rose, Seeliger and Tavis Seibert and graduate students Bell, Colby Mefford, and Sebastian Somerset.
 
"Hopefully, we won't be saying goodbye to all 12 of them – that senior class still has one COVID year, so hopefully we get a couple of those guys back, but it's a special group," Durden said. "It's an awesome class - it's three fifth-year guys – in this day and age rarely do you have nine guys come in and nine guys leave as seniors. It's a testament to the culture that's here amongst our group. They understand the impact that they have on our program both in and out of the pool and they want to be a part of it every single day."

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