Bryce Mefford Makes Season Debut as Cal Men and Women Sweep Arizona State

California vs. Arizona State

• January 22, 2022
• Spieker Aquatic Center, Berkeley, CA
• SCY (25 yards)
• Men’s Results
• Women’s Results
• Results on MeetMobile “Cal vs ASU – Dual 2022”

Team Scores Men

1. California – 176
2. Arizona State – 117

Team Scores Women

1. California – 162
2. Arizona State – 93

The second-ranked California men defeated No. 5 Arizona State 173 – 80 and the No. 5 California women defeated No. 16 Arizona State 153 – 92.  at Berkeley on Jan. 22nd. This was fifth-year Senior and Olympian Bryce Mefford’s first meet for Cal since officially joining Cal’s roster earlier this month. 

Mefford swam the 100 and 200 backstrokes at the meet. He swam a 47.44 in the 100, coming in second behind teammate Daniel Carr, and won the 200 back in a time of 1:44.04. 

Mefford swam an exhibition 100 fly the day before in a meet with Arizona. He went 48.07 in that race. The last time he swam the 100 fly was a year before, once again against Arizona, when he went 49.61. 

Mefford’s time in the 200 was good enough for an NCAA “B” cut. His last dual meet time came against Stanford in November 2020, where he swam a 1:40.45, indicating that Mefford has some work ahead of him leading into championship season. Mefford was third in the 200 at the 2021 NCAA Championships, and came in 4th in the 200m back at the Tokyo Olympics. 

The Cal men won 11 out of 15 events, with ASU earning victories in the 100 free, 200 breast, and 400 IM. In the 100 free, ASU’s Carter Swift was able to come from behind on the second 50 to beat Cal’s Bjorn Seeliger. Swift finished in 43.32 to Seeliger’s 43.38. Seeliger defeated Swift earlier in the meet in the 50 free, winning by over half-a-second.

The 200 free featured a race between the top-2 ranked swimmers in the NCAA and was decided by 0.01, with Cal’s Gabriel Jett out-touching ASU’s Grant House. Jett finished in 1:34.13 to House’s 1:34.14. House has the fastest time in the NCAA this year (1:31.73), while Jett has the second fastest time in the event this season (1:32.52). 

The Cal women won 13 events, with ASU’s only swimming victory coming in the 1000 free. In that race, ASU’s Erica Laning finished in a best time of 9:57.63. This was Laning’s second time swimming the 1000 this season, her first being against USC in early November when she went 10:05.26. Laning also has an NCAA “B” cut in the 500. 

Isabel Ivey and Leah Polonsky each won two events for Cal. Ivey’s wins came in the 200 free and 100 fly. Ivey was 4th at the 2021 NCAA Championships in the 100 fly (50.68), and finished in 53.74 here. She was slightly faster the last time she swam the fly in a dual meet against Virginia back in October, when she went 53.05. Polonsky, a freshman from Israel, won the 100 breast in 1:02.10 and the 400 IM in 4:14.53. 

The Cal men next have split-squad meets in southern California, with swimmers competing at both USC and UC-San Diego on Feb. 4th. The Cal women next swim Jan. 28th against USC. 

The Sun Devils next take on Arizona in Tucson on Feb. 5th.