It is fair to say now that the 2019 NCAA men’s swimming and diving team championship is Cal’s to lose. Bears nearly lost it when they were scrutinized for a potential DQ at the end of the 200y medley relay that closed night 3, but the officials eventually found no stroke violation. Instead of just an 9 point lead going into Saturday (since Texas’ point total would also go up with a Cal DQ), Bears will have a solid 43 point lead going into Saturday by retaining those 34 points from a relay runner-up finish.
On top of a brilliant Thursday when they won 3 NCAA titles (1 relay and 2 individual), Bears had an even better Friday perlim by qualifying more swimmers into the A-Finals (minimum 11 points) rather than having them win the B-Finals (9 points only) like on Thursday night.