Cal Men Will Need March Magic to Continue Incredible Streak

Cal Men Will Need March Magic to Continue Incredible Streak

The California men’s swim team owns the most impressive streak in college swimming history, one that must rank among the best across all sports. At each of the last 15 NCA A Championships, the team has finished first or second place in the standings, and the number would be 16 if not for the cancellation of the 2020 meet at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. While some teams struggle to replicate their season-best performances in March, Golden Bears head coach Dave Durden has his team ready to go every year, his run dating back to his third year on the job.

But this spring, it might take some serious Durden magic to get the job done again. Texas, the team atop the rankings with Cal for 12 of the 15 top-two finishes, is favored to defend its national crown from last year while programs including Indiana, Florida and Arizona State have numerous accomplished performers coming back for this year’s meet.

The Bears, on the other hand, lost almost all of the men responsible for scoring 471 points at the 2025 NCAA meet, only 19 less than the Longhorns. Cal became the first team to ever swim under 6:00 in the 800 free relay on the meet’s opening night, but Jack Alexy, Gabriel Jett, Destin Lasco and Lucas Henveaux are all out of college eligibility.

Alexy never developed the turns to make himself an individual national-title contender in yards, but he is one of the best sprinters in the world, as evidenced by his pair of individual medals from this year’s World Championships. Lasco was a multi-time NCAA titlist who remains the short course yards American-record holder in the 200 IM and 200 backstroke while the versatile Jett was always good for three A-finals per NCAA meet and Henveaux put up big points in the mid-distance races during his two seasons at Cal (2023 and 2025). While not at Alexy’s level, Lasco, Jett and Henveaux have all established footholds on the international level.

Bjorn Seeliger finished his career after he was consistent national A-finalist in the sprint events over the past five seasons, as did Dare Rose, a butterfly specialist who was second in the 200-yard event last season before qualifying for his second World Championships team in June. Also gone are backstroker Mewen Tomac, an Olympic finalist in the 100-meter race in Paris, plus NCAA consolation finalists Frank Applebaum, Robin Hanson, Matthew Jensen and Tyler Kopp.

Strong swimmers remain on the Golden Bears roster but nothing close to the level of last year’s team. Yamato Okadome is the only returning swimmer who reached a national A-final or swam on a relay at last season’s NCAAs. Okadome impressed in his freshman campaign as he filled the role of Cal’s No. 1 breaststroker, previously occupied by NCAA champion Liam Bell, and he placed sixth in the 200-yard event and seventh in the 100 nationally. Now he might be the team’s most valuable performer.

Keaton Jones, an Olympic finalist in the 200-meter back, is now a junior for the Bears, but he is still searching for the short course success to match his long course accomplishments. He has been sub-1:55 in the long course version of the event but never an NCAA A-finalist in yards (he finished ninth last year). The team’s other returning scorers are Huberto Najera (13th in the 200 back and 14th in the 400 IM in 2024), Hank Rivers (16th in the 100 breast) and Joshua Thai (16th in 3-meter diving). Nans Mazellier takes on the role of the team’s top sprinter while Geoffrey Vavitsas was an A-finalist in diving in 2024.

Meanwhile, Cal has an intriguing group of swimmers joining its roster, with the middle-distance and distance freestyle races in particularly good shape. Leading that group is Ryan Erisman, a freshman coming off a stellar showing at U.S. Nationals. Erisman came close to reaching the World Championships with his third-place finish in the 400-meter free, and he was also fifth in the 800 free and 16th in the 200. In addition, Nathan Wiffen, the twin brother of 800 free Olympic champion Dan Wiffen, will join the Cal team this year, and Eduardo Moraes, who finished 17th in the 500 free at last season’s NCAAs, is expected to join the team later this season.

The freshman class also includes a pair of swimmers who represented the U.S. at the World Junior Championships this year, Kenny Barnicle and Norvy Clontz. Barnicle picked up a bronze medal at the meet by virtue of his efforts on the American men’s 400 free relay. However, it’s currently unclear to what extent these two and the team’s other freshmen could provide a national-level impact in year one.

Finally, do not discount the possibility of a game-changing midyear addition; that was the case last season when Henveaux and Tomac unexpectedly debuted for the Bears in January. But even with a winter game-changer, it might be too much to expect Cal to continue its incredible streak of top-two finishes following the slew of graduations. That said, given the recent history of this program, never count out Cal.