Congratulations!!
Roll on you Bears!!
Roll on you Bears!!
#6 Cal Men's Swimming Repeats As ACC Champions
11k Views
Photo by Daniel Varnado
ATLANTA - The No. 6 California men's swimming & diving team won its second ACC championship in as many years since joining the conference Saturday, outdistancing rival Stanford on the final day to take home the 2026 crown.
Sophomore Yamato Okadome, who was named the meet's Most Valuable Swimmer, helped bring the Golden Bears home with his second individual title in as many nights, making it a clean sweep of the breaststroke events with a resounding victory in the 200-yard iteration of the event. Okadome set a meet record with a time of 1:48.87, the fastest in the event nationally this season and No. 3 all-time at Cal. He won the race in the A-final by over two seconds.
Okadome also won the 100 breaststroke and was part of Cal's winning 400 medley team on Friday night.
The Bears won four individual and relay titles overall, with graduate student Evan Petty also taking the 100 back on Friday.
"It's a great conference," Cal Director of Swimming & Diving David Durden told the ACC Network. "We're excited to be in it. It's great competition heading into NCAAs."
Unlike last year when the Bears won the team title by over 200 points in their inaugural season in the ACC, Cal was pushed throughout the week by its pursuers. The Bears ended up with a 78-point margin of victory over runner-up Stanford.
"We had a long road to get here," Durden told ACC Network. "Once we got here, we really got it rolling through the back end of the season. It was good to see these young guys really perform at an elite level."
Cal has now won 11 conference championships in program history.
The Bears will now turn their attention to the 2026 NCAA Championships on March 25-28.
Never miss the latest news from Bear Insider!
Join our free email list