Cal Invitational Swim Meet Day 1 Recap
- Cal Invitational Swim Meet
- January 15-16th, 2022
- Spieker Aquatic Complex, Berkeley, CA
- Meet Mobile: “Cal Invitational Swim Meet”
The Cal Invitational began on Saturday, January 15th 2022 at Spiker Aquatic Complex, home of Cal-Berkeley. The meet is split up into two sessions a day. The women began at noon EST on Saturday and then men began at 5:30 pm EST. Day 2 will have the men beginning at noon EST and the women at 5:30 pm EST. Almost all of the teams in attendance are from the Pacific Coast USA Swimming LSC.
The meet was hosted on the Cal campus, but was a USA Swimming meet with a mixture of collegiate and junior-aged club athletes.
On the women’s side this afternoon, Northwestern class of 2023 commit Audrey J-Cheng (Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics-PASA) swam to first place finishes in both the 200 IM (2:02.75) and the 200 butterfly (2:02.47). In the 200 IM, J-Cheng narrowly out touched Harvard commit and fellow PASA teammate Kaia Li who swam to a time of 2:03.10. J-Cheng won the 200 butterfly by over three seconds.
UCSB class of 2022 commit Nina Statler (Walnut Creek Aqua Bears-WCAB) also won two events. She won the 50 freestyle in a time of 22.96 and the 100 backstroke in a time of 56.63. Statler was the only woman to break 23 seconds in the 50 freestyle.
Class of 2023 Auburn commit Zoey Zeller (South Valley Makos-MAKO) swam to the win in the 200 breaststroke in a time of 2:19.95. She won the event by a little over a second and a half as second place finisher Eunice Lee (Santa Clara Swim Club-SCSC)swam a time of 2:21.61.
14-year-old Kelsey Zhang of Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics (PASA) swam to the victory in the 500 freestyle in a time of 4:57.10. She was the only swimmer to break the five-minute mark. Second place finisher was 13-year-old Maren Byrne swimming to a time of 5:10.40.
The California men were in attendance at the men’s portion of day 1. A member of the Cal men’s roster won first-place in every event. The men were listed as “unattached.”
Fifth year Trenton Julian kicked things off winning the 200 IM in a time of 1:47.21. His best time is a 1:44.04 from the 2018 PAC-12 Championships. Graduate student Daniel Carr won the 50 freestyle in a time of 19.81. He was the only man to break 20-seconds.
Sophomore Tyler Kopp kept the winning streak going as he won the 200 butterfly (1:48.32) beating out Alto Swim Club’s Evan Gold who swam a time of 1:49.17.
Tokyo 2020 US Olympian Bryce Mefford raced in the 100 backstroke winning in a time of 48.68. Mefford graduated from Cal-Berkeley this past spring. Bryce isn’t currently on the roster for Cal, but swam a 50 backstroke against Virginia earlier in the season. A spokesperson for Cal has previously said in November 2021 that Bryce is training with the team but that “his race schedule hasn’t been determined as of yet.” His younger brother, Colby Mefford, is currently a junior on the roster.
Sophomore Destin Lasco swam to a winning time of 2:00.35 in the 200 breaststroke. He was followed closely behind by Quicksilver Swimming’s Anthony Sebastian who swam a time of 2:01.25.
Graduate transfer from the University of Michigan, Will Roberts closed out the night for Cal winning the 500 freestyle by over 10 seconds in a time of 4:26.77.
The men swim Sunday, January 16th at noon EST for day 2 and the women begin at 5:30 pm EST.