For the third time this season, No. 3 Cal men’s swim & dive is set to make a big splash against No. 9 Stanford this Friday.
Closing out the regular season in front of a home crowd, the blue and gold will also be honoring ten seniors and eight graduate students before action kicks off the blocks at Spieker Aquatics Complex.
Fresh off a defiant 212-88 win over No. 16 USC on Jan. 17, Cal comes into its matchup with the Cardinal riding a wave of momentum. Capturing 12 out of 16 event titles, the Bears kicked off the new year by registering some of the fastest swims in the country this season.
In his season debut for Cal, fifth-year Lucas Henveaux recorded a pool record for his 4:11.17 performance in the 500-yard freestyle. Not only was his time the fourth fastest in the nation this season, Henveaux also touched the wall with the sixth fastest time in program history.
Also etching his name into the record books was junior Matthew Chai, whose 8:45.81 swim in the 1000-yard freestyle is the second fastest time in school history.
The Cardinal enter Bear Territory fresh off a similarly-smashing win over the Trojans, finishing their first meet back from the break with a 205-95 win against their former Pac-12 competitors.
Swimmers to watch on the Stanford side include seniors Andrei Minakov and Ron Polonsky — both of whom recorded multiple race wins in their rout of USC. Minakov, the meet’s sole quadruple winner, captured a pair of individual victories in the 200-yard butterfly and 100-yard freestyle while contributing blistering splits to the 200 medley and 400 freestyle relays. Leading the way for Minakov in the medley relay, Polonsky also touched the wall first in both of his breaststroke events.
The last time the two Bay Area foes met, at a double dual tri-meet in early November, Cal eked out a 181-172 win over the Cardinal. Led by their Olympic contingent, senior Jack Alexy and freshman Keaton Jones both notched key wins in their respective events to buoy the Bears — the former registering a 41.87 in the 100-yard freestyle and the latter a 1:41.68 in the 200-yard backstroke.
Additionally, a podium-topping performance by Joshua Thai on the 3-meter springboard helped add crucial points to help topple the Cardinal. Thai, recently named the ACC Men’s Diver of the Week for the second time, has been delivering for the Bears all season long.
During the same meet, Cal fell to a stacked No. 4 ASU — marking its sole loss on the season thus far. Even with the departure of former head coach Bob Bowman and four-time Olympic gold medalist Léon Marchand at the conclusion of last season, the Sun Devils have remained an achilles heel for the Bears.
Although Cal will have to wait until March to attempt to take down current No. 1 Texas and No. 2 Indiana, they have a long path ahead of them to beat the nation’s best — beginning today. Now meeting for the final time before ACC championships in late February, these two programs have one last chance to make their mark on a storied rivalry.
Cal fans can watch the Bears take on the Cardinal on Friday at 1 p.m. at the Spieker Aquatic Complex.
