Cal Men's Swim: Destin Lasco and Golden Bears Shine at NCAA Meet

The Cal men’s swim team couldn’t secure a third straight NCAA team championship, but the Golden Bears did pretty much everything else at the four-day meet.

The Cal men’s swim team couldn’t secure a third straight NCAA team championship, but the Golden Bears did pretty much everything else at the four-day meet at Indianapolis.

Cal finished second behind champion Arizona State, marking the 14th consecutive season the Bears have finished among the top-2 teams at the collegiate championships. Cal scored 444.5 points while ASU totaled 523.5 points to claim its first NCAA crown in the sport.

Leading the way for Cal was senior Destin Lasco, who set NCAA, US Open and American records in the 200-yard backstroke with a winning time of 1 minute, 35.37 seconds. That eclipsed his personal best of 1:36.05, recorded in the Saturday morning prelims.

Lasco, who won the 200 back for the third consecutive season, took the American record from former Cal star and Olympian Ryan Murphy, who set the previous mark of 1:35.73 in 2016.

Earlier in the meet, Lasco won the 200 individual medley in an American-record time of 1:37.91. He was runner-up in the event the previous two seasons and placed third in 2021.

On the opening day of the meet, Lasco teammed with Gabriel Jett, Jack Alexy, and Robin Hanson set an NCAA record, meet record and US Open record in the 800 free relay with a time of 6:02.26. Cal’s previous best was 6:06.41 set at the NCAA Championships last year.

It was the Bears’ first NCAA title in the 800 free relay since 1986.

In Saturday’s final event, the quartet of Alexy, Lasco, Jensen, and Bjorn Seeliger finished third  in the 400 free relay with a time of 2:44.46.

Alexi swam to a third-place finish in the 100 free with a program-record of 40.59.

Friday’s highlight was provided by Liam Bell, who won the 100 breaststroke, setting NCAA and American record with a time of 49.53, nearly a full second faster than his previous best.

Later Friday, Bell joined forces with Lasco, Dare Rose and Seelinger to place second in the 400 medley relay with a program-record mark of 2:58.30. Seelinger’s anchor split of 40.30 in the freestyle leg was the fastest of the meet.