Can Cal Men Reclaim NCAA Swimming Title in 2025?
Every NCAA swimming season, we remember one of the most incredible streaks in college sports: the Cal men’s swim team has finished among the two best teams in the nation for a decade-and-a-half. Head coach Dave Durden has led his Golden Bears to six national titles and eight runnerup finishes, while the cancelled 2020 national meet surely would have brought another top-two result.
Will that run continue for the 2024-25 season? Probably so, considering the list of swimmers the team returns from last season’s group that finished 79 points behind Arizona State in March. Now, the Sun Devils team has largely broken up, with Leon Marchand turning professional and many big names, including Olympic gold medalist Hubert Kos, following former head coach Bob Bowman to Austin, Texas, to take over a Longhorns program that has been Cal’s chief rival for most of its historic run.
Cal, meanwhile, loses exactly one national-level scorer from its 2023-24 roster, although it’s a big one. Breaststroker Liam Bell made a huge jump in his fifth year with the program, becoming the fastest swimmer ever in the 100-yard breast while finishing fourth in the 200 breast and handling legs on three top-four relays. In Bell’s absence, breaststroke could be a significant hole for Cal this year, a notable problem considering the strength of the other three legs of the team’s medley relays.
Keaton Jones (right) with Ryan Murphy — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
Two U.S. Olympians are part of the roster this year, Jack Alexy and Keaton Jones. Alexy will undoubtedly be the most important swimmer in Cal’s program this year after a Games in which he was a finalist in the 100 free while winning two relay medals with the U.S. team. Alexy lacks the speedy turns and underwater dolphin kicking of many rival college sprinters, including Josh Liendo and Jordan Crooks, but he can extend his short course range all the way to the 200-yard free, having placed second to Luke Hobson in that event last year.
Jones, who did not reach an NCAA A-final as a freshman or swim on any relays at the NCAA Championships, placed second at the U.S. Olympic Trials in the 200-meter back behind Cal legend Ryan Murphy, and he ended up coming in fifth in the event in Paris. Given his successful long course season, it’s fair to expect more than a pair of consolation-final swims on the national level.
The other central figures on this Cal team did not make a huge impact in long course, but they are veterans with an established track record of showing up big in March. Cal has taken full advantage of the COVID-19 waiver that allows swimmers to use a fifth year of eligibility, with some of these veterans fueling national-title runs in recent years: Daniel Carr, Sean Grieshop, Trenton Julian and Bryce Mefford filled that role in 2022 while Reece Whitley was the main swimmer to stick around in 2023.
This year, Cal’s fifth-years include returning individual scorers Bjorn Seeliger, Dare Rose and Tyler Kopp plus relay swimmer Matt Jensen. Seeliger, a two-time Olympian for Sweden, has put together an extremely successful career for Cal in individual and relay events while Rose has taken on a larger role over the past two years in the butterfly events, even if long course is his preferred format. Rose won bronze in the 100-meter fly at the 2023 World Championships, but he missed out on the 2024 Olympic team by four hundredths, with teenager Thomas Heilman sneaking past him for the second spot in the 100 fly.
Destin Lasco — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
Finally, Cal has two of the country’s most versatile swimmers in seniors Destin Lasco and Gabriel Jett. Lasco set American records in winning national titles in the 200 IM and 200 back last year while also finishing fifth in the 100 back while Jett was an A-finalist in the 500 free, 200 free and 200 fly. However, both are coming off disappointing summers where they did not qualify for the U.S. Olympic team.
Two years ago, Jett looked like a promising talent for the U.S. in the 200-meter fly, but he has not come close to returning to 1:54-territory since then. Lasco, meanwhile, was a finalist in the 200-meter back at the 2023 World Championships, but he made the risky decision to scratch the event at Olympic Trials, believing his better chance at Paris qualification would come as a relay swimmer in the 100 free. On the Trials schedule, the 200 back semifinal would occur shortly before the 100 free final.
Lasco’s decision almost paid off, but he ended up seventh in the 100 free final, two tenths short of the sixth spot needed for qualification. The finish was especially painful considering his semifinal time of 47.90 would have gotten the job done.
With this group, Cal has the veteran pieces needed for another title run. And in a rare occurrence, the Golden Bears even have strong divers, with platform scorers Geoffrey Vavitsas and Joshua Thai both returning from 2024.
Of course, the usual challengers will not let Cal run away with this title, with Texas and Indiana having picked up key transfers while Florida retains its host of top sprinters and Arizona State still has butterfly Olympic medalist Ilya Kharun.
But every year, Durden gets his swimmers ready to perform in March. Yes, they still badly need a breaststroker to fill a pair of relay legs, but that might be Cal’s only hole in the quest for a seventh title in 16 seasons.
This year’s international Bear of the Year
Yamato Okadome
1:00.70 100 Breaststroke LCM
Junior Pan Pacs, 2022.