The two-time defending NCAA men's champion from Cal have released their schedule, and the Golden Bears will begin competing very early in the season, as they often do, at this weekend's Tiburon Mile Open Water swim.
After that, their season will follow a fairly predictable path, with the Cal Poly Invitational meet (renamed from King & Queen of the Pool), before welcoming in a pair of mid-level dual meets (this year's are against Pacific and Wisconsin). With Wisconsin bringing their new star Michael Weiss to town, we should get some great IM battles with him and Marcin Tarczynski.
Next up is the traditional Stanford Triple Dual Meet, hosted across the bay in Palo Alto this year, where swimmers divide into stroke groups and race three distances for their stroke, with the event win going to the fastest aggregate time.
Up next will be the Georgia Invitational in late November/early December, where the Bears in their own words will send a “contingent”. That implies that a part of the team will also head to Winter Nationals in Austin, which are in yards this season.
After a 6-week meet break for the holidays, the Bears return for their hosted two-day Cal Invitational before beginning the tough part of their competition: the Pac-12 schedule.
This year's meets will feature an away trip to face off against the Arizona schools, and then welcoming in USC and a return trip from Stanford to end the regular season.
Pac-12′s will head back to the legendary Belmont Plaza this season, after a one year hiatus in East LA while Belmont underwent emergency repairs. Then it's off to Indianapolis for the NCAA Championships, where the Golden Bears will seek a threepeat.
The Bears tend to shy away from any huge, head-on tests early in the season; aside from the Winter Nationals/Georgia Invite, there aren't really any huge meets on the schedule in the first semester. What this allows, however, is for head coach Dave Durden to play with his lineups a bit: a luxury that gives him the opportunity to discover things like Tom Shields being capable of pulling off a 100 fly-100 back NCAA Championship double on day 2 of that schedule.
“Overall, our schedule provides some good balance,” Durden said of his newest marching orders. “We will see some great competition early, and we will have the opportunity to evaluate our squad in some different line-up situations.”
2012-2013 Cal Men's SCHEDULE |
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| Date | Opponent / Event | Location | Time / Result |
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| 09/09/12 | vs. Tiburon Mile Swim | Tiburon, Calif. | 9:00 a.m. PT |
| Cal Poly Invitational | |||
| 09/21/12 | vs. Cal Poly Invitational | San Luis Obispo, Calif. | All Day |
| 09/22/12 | vs. Cal Poly Invitational | San Luis Obispo, Calif. | All Day |
| |||
| 10/10/12 | vs. Pacific | Berkeley, Calif. | 1:00 p.m. PT |
| 11/03/12 | vs. Wisconsin | Berkeley, Calif. | 12:00 p.m. PT |
| 11/07/12 | at Triple Distance Meet | Stanford, Calif. | 2:00 p.m. PT |
| Georgia Invitational | |||
| 11/30/12 | Georgia Invitational | Athens, Ga. | All Day |
| |||
| 12/01/12 | Georgia Invitational | Athens, Ga. | All Day |
| 12/02/12 | Georgia Invitational | Athens, Ga. | All Day |
| Cal Invitational | |||
| 01/19/13 | Cal Invitational | Berkeley, Calif. | All Day |
| |||
| 01/20/13 | Cal Invitational | Berkeley, Calif. | All Day |
| 01/25/13 | at Arizona | Tucson, Ariz. | 2:00 p.m. PT |
| 01/26/13 | at Arizona State | Tempe, Ariz. | 12:00 p.m. PT |
| 02/07/13 | vs. CSU Bakersfield | Berkeley, Calif. | 11:00 a.m. PT |
| 02/08/13 | vs. USC | Berkeley, Calif. | TBA |
| 02/23/13 | vs. Stanford | Berkeley, Calif. | 1:00 p.m. PT |
| Pac-12 Diving Championships | |||
| 02/28/13 | Pac-12 Diving Championships  | Federal Way, Wash. | All Day |
| |||
| 03/01/13 | Pac-12 Diving Championships | Federal Way, Wash. | All Day |
| 03/02/13 | Pac-12 Diving Championships | Federal Way, Wash. | All Day |
| Pac-12 Swimming Championships | |||
| 03/06/13 | Pac-12 Swimming Championships | Long Beach, Calif. | All Day |
| |||
| 03/07/13 | Pac-12 Swimming Championships | Long Beach, Calif. | All Day |
| 03/08/13 | Pac-12 Swimming Championships | Long Beach, Calif. | All Day |
| 03/09/13 | Pac-12 Swimming Championships | Long Beach, Calif. | All Day |
| Pac-12 Invitational | |||
| 03/10/13 | Pac-12 Invitational | Long Beach, Calif. | All Day |
| |||
| NCAA Championships | |||
| 03/28/13 | NCAA Championships | Indianapolis, Ind. | All Day |
| |||
| 03/29/13 | NCAA Championships | Indianapolis, Ind. | All Day |
| 03/30/13 | NCAA Championships | Indianapolis, Ind. | All Day |