Cal’s Hugo Gonzalez Wins On Day 2 of Cal Invitational | SwimSwam

By Anya Pelshaw on SwimSwam

Cal Invitational Swim Meet Day 2 Recap

• Cal Invitational Swim Meet
• January 15-16th, 2022
• Spieker Aquatic Complex, Berkeley, CA
• Meet Mobile: “Cal Invitational Swim Meet”
• Day 1 Recap

The Cal Invitational continued with day 2 on Sunday, January 16th 2022 at Spiker Aquatic Complex, home of Cal. The meet is split up in two sessions a day. Day 2 had the men begin at noon EST and the women at 5:30 pm EST. Almost all of the teams in attendance were 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.

Boys

The Cal men’s team did not swim as much as they did on day 1. Redshirt senior Hugo Gonzalez was the only member of the men’s team to pick up a win on day 2. He won the 100 breaststroke in a time of 55.89. Primarily a backstroke and IMer, Gonzalez transferred from Auburn to Cal in fall 2019. 

Alto Swim Club’s Evan Gold had two individual victories on day 2. He won the 200 backstroke in a time of 1:50.94. He won the event by over three seconds as second place finisher Scott Iannaccone went a time of 1:54.16. Gold also won the 400 IM in a time of 4:05.02 which is about three seconds off of his personal best time of 4:01.90 from November 2021 . 

Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics’ (PASA) Arthur Balva also picked up two wins. He won the 100 butterfly in a time of 50.15 and the 200 freestyle in a time of 1:43.39, narrowly beating out Gold who swam a time of 1:43.55. Balva was just off of his best times in the 100 butterfly (49.79) and 200 freestyle (1:42.37). Both of those best times came in fall 2021. 

Ethan Harrington of PASA picked up the final individual win in the 100 freestyle in a time of 45.12. Harrington placed fourth at 2021 Winter Juniors West in the event swimming to a best time of 43.76 in finals. Cal sophomore Dare Rose was runner-up in the 100 freestyle swimming to a time of 45.62 which was faster than he went at the Cal dual meet against Cal-Poly back in September 2021.

Girls

Northwestern commit Audrey J-Cheng (PASA) continued her success from day 1 into day 2 as she won another two individual events. She won the 100 freestyle in a best time of 50.79 and the 100 breaststroke in a time of 1:03.25. In both races, Harvard commit and PASA teammate Laia Ll finished as runner up. Ll swam to times of 51.58 in the 100 freestyle and 1:03.79 in the 100 breaststroke. 

14-year-old Kelsey Zhang of PASA had two individual wins on day 2. She won the 100 butterfly in a time of 54.81 and the 200 freestyle in a time of 1:51.41. Her 100 butterfly time was a best time by almost two seconds as her previous best was a 56.56 set back in March 2021.

Calista Lynch of PASA swam to a victory in the 200 backstroke with a winning time of 2:03.39. She was just off of her best time of 2:02.41 which she set at the beginning of December 2021. 

Eunice Lee of Santa Clara Swim Club had the last victory of the day, swimming to a time of 4:24.50 in the 400 IM. Lee won the event by over 15 seconds as second place finisher 13-year-old Maren Byrne swam to a time of 4:39.86. Byrne’s time was a best time by over 12 seconds as her previous best was a 4:52.65 from October 2021. 

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