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No, Dave Durden and his California Golden Bears did not come to the NCAA championships with their sights set on second place. No, it didn’t make them feel much better that Texas’ margin of victory over second-place Cal was 11.5 points, the smallest since 2002.
“I just hope that they ran out of diving events because every time we looked up we were making some traction, and then we would fall back a bit,” Durden said, referring to the influx of diving points that propelled both Texas and Indiana over the course of the meet. Cal did not score any diving points during the meet.
“I think our guys handled the meet really well from session to session,” Durden said. “I was really proud of our guys and how they stayed in it.”
Durden professed his admiration for his senior class, which included stalwart sprinter Justin Lynch, for helping lead the team “the right way.”
“We certainly were hoping to win a national title,” he said. “I was pretty darn impressed that we did that without an individual title, a relay title. We just kept throwing bodies at the meet, and it was pretty cool to see our guys do that session-in, session-out.”
Speaking along with Durden were Cal juniors Andrew Seliskar and Nick Norman. Seliskar had been Cal’s most prolific swimmer over the course of the week, qualifying fastest in both IM events out of prelims and then finishing second in the 200 breast, while Norman provided one of the big boosts of the final night when he finished a surprising third in the 1650 free.
I was just giving it my best,” Norman said, pausing to apologize for his raspy voice. “I wasn’t too focused on the team score. I was trying to stay away from the scoreboard. When I swim, I try not to look too much at the team because it get in my head. I stayed in my own lane, and it really paid off.”
Watch the full interview with Seliskar, Norman and Durden below.
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Coach ,as a coach I understand how throwing body’s to each event and not winning an event, and amazingly no divers to score , you managed to still finish 2nd In the title run, an awesome do display of courage and determination by your swimmers.
I hope that your belief in each swimmers contribution was the difference.
Hope next season Californian wins .??♂️