BERKELEY – California won its fourth straight Pac-12 Men's Swimming & Diving Championship, concluding a dominant week with five individual victories – including a conference record in the 200 fly and two conference championship records in the 1650 free and 200 breast – and one relay win at the Pac-12 MSDC. The Golden Bears nearly swept all 18 swimming events across the four-day championship meet, totaling 970 points to finish 182 points ahead of runner-up Stanford (788). Cal's 17 Pac-12 individual/relay victories are a program record, besting the former mark of 15 set by the 2019 team. The 970-point total was one shy of tying the 2018 squad's school record (971) at Pac-12s. The 2021 team title was highlighted by an eight-man senior class that has been a part of Cal's four conference titles dating back to 2018. Ryan Hoffer was named the Pac-12 Swimmer of the Meet for the second consecutive year after sweeping his three individual events and contributing to four relay wins throughout the week. After winning the 50 free and 100 fly on Monday and Tuesday, Hoffer captured the 100 free title in 41.57 seconds Wednesday. He swam on Cal's winning relay squads in the 400 medley, 200 free, 200 medley and 400 free relay events. Cal has won six of the past nine Pac-12 Men's Swimming & Diving Championships – all under head coach David Durden – dating back to 2013. The Bears have won eight total conference titles since 1980 (1980, '81, 2011, '12, '18, '19, '20, '21). Zach Yeadon started the evening with a Pac-12 Championship-record performance in the 1650 free (14:33.69), shaving 0:27 off of Nick Norman's former mark of 14:33.96 for his first Pac-12 individual title. The Bears flexed their dominance in the next event, going 1-2-3-4-5-6 in the 200 back, led by freshman Destin Lasco who touched in 1:38.13 to sweep the backstroke events. Cal tallied 85 total points with its six swimmers taking the top marks in the 200 back event. Hoffer made it 3-for-3 in individual events at the 2021 Pac-12 Championships with his 41.57 in the 100 free. It was the second-fastest time in the nation this year and gave the senior his 17th of 18 career Pac-12 individual/relay titles. Reece Whitley sealed his breaststroke sweep with a new Pac-12 Championship record in the 200 breast, touching in 1:48.86 to top Andrew Seliskar's former time of 1:49.80 from 2019. Trenton Julian saved his best for last in the final individual event of the meet, finishing the 200 fly in 1:38.53 to set a new Pac-12 record and a new Cal school record (previously held by Zheng Wen Quah since 2017, 1:38.83). It was the nation's fastest time this year and ranks Julian as the third-fastest ever in the event, trailing just Texas' Jack Conger and Joseph Schooling. The night concluded with Cal's 2:48.66 finish in the 400 free relay. Daniel Carr, Björn Seeliger, Lasco and Hoffer won the event by nearly 2.5 seconds to complete the Bears' relay sweep. Cal became the second team in the last quarter century to sweep all five relay events, joining the 2019 Bears as the only squads to do so.  

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Sophomore Zheng Wen Quah earned the first of two wins on the day with a time of 47.60 in the 100 back while Carson Sand followed with a mark of 54.09 and a win of his own in the 100 breast. Mike Thomas claimed the 200 fly in 1:44.36 and Justin Lynch finished the first portion of the meet with a time of 19.88 and a victory in the 50 free. Jensen picked up in the 100 free where he left off in the 200, clocking a time of 43.07 to just beat Lynch to the wall for the win. A battle of Cal freshmen finished 1-2 in the 200 back as Bryce Mefford stopped the clock in 1:45.22 to narrowly out-touch Carr. Sand completed a sweep of the breaststroke events with a time of 1:58.71 and Quah earned his own double with a time of 47.63 in the 100 fly. Norman led Cal's contingent in the 500 free to the wall, placing second in 4:25.17. With temperatures beginning to drop, Cal finished strong after the final break of the day as Seliskar led a 1-2 Cal finish to the wall with a time of 3:49.78 in the 400 IM. Cal's 400 free relay team of Jensen, Lynch, Quah and Mefford also touched first, swimming to a time of 2:55.27. "Arizona State is a much improved team and has some really good swimmers. I thought our guys that may have been racing a primary event, secondary or third or fourth event for them, were really nice and consistent throughout the meet," Cal head coach David Durden said. "It got a little bit colder and there was definitely that as adversity to handle and manage but they didn't get slower as they went through the meet, which was really good to see. There's 20 different things they could complain about throughout the course of a meet, maybe not swimming a primary event, maybe not swimming an event they're good at but they handled that and did a really nice job." Cal's divers were also in action at Legends Aquatic Center with the Bears and Sun Devils competing on both the 1 and 3-meter boards. Sophomore Connor Callahan posted a season-best mark of 349.13 to finish second in the 1-meter and followed that with another season-best in the 3-meter, scoring 359.48 to take third. Cal's effort Friday set the tone for a busy weekend in Berkeley. The Bears will test both their recovery skills and their depth on Saturday at noon when they line up for another Pac-12 dual meet against Arizona. "They have worked really hard over the last three weeks as we came off of Colorado Springs and got back down from altitude and trained really hard through this week," Durden said. "To see some of the performances was really good but I think how they got to those performances was also really good to see."

BUDAPEST – Over the course of his career, Nathan Adrian has been labeled as Mr. Reliable as the anchor for many of Team USA's relays in international competition. The Cal graduate came through again on Sunday, handling the final leg of the 400-meter relay and touching first for a gold medal on the opening day of swimming at the World Championships.   As a result, Adrian joined some elite company in U.S. history with his 10th medal at the world meet, becoming just the fifth American male to reach double digits. The others in the group are Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Aaron Peirsol and Cal alum Matt Biondi. On his fifth World Championships team, Adrian is a three-time Olympian who also won eight Olympic medals.   "It was exciting, I'm glad to be on the winning end of that race," Adrian said. "It's all about being tough, racing and trying to get your hand on the wall first." In Sunday's final, Adrian split 47.25 over the final 100 meters, as the United States finished in 3:10.06 and held off Brazil by 0.28 seconds for its first gold in the event since 2009.   Adrian, selected captain of the U.S. team, will be back in action individually in the 50 and 100 free, while Ryan Murphy will be swimming the 100 and 200 backstroke after taking gold in both events at the 2016 Olympics in Rio. Fellow alum Jacob Pebley will compete in the 200 back for Team USA, which is led by Golden Bear head coach David Durden.