Mustang Swimming & Diving Opens Season Friday With King and Queen of the Pool
9/28/2022 5:30:00 PM | Swimming and Diving
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — The Cal Poly swimming and diving program opens its 2022-23 season Friday when they host the annual King and Queen of the Pool pentathlon with Cal. The meet starts at 11 a.m. from the Anderson Aquatic Center.
Head coach Phil Yoshida has been looking forward to this event with the Golden Bears for months and can't wait to see the Mustangs hit the pool.
"I'm antsy about it," he said. "I've been excited about this date since June for as well as everyone did this summer. Our athletes are working hard and swimming fast. I'm pushing them and they're stepping up, and now to get them on the blocks against competition, I'm so excited for it."
During Friday's pentathlon, each swimmer will take part in five 100-yard races, including butterfly, breaststroke, individual medley, backstroke and freestyle. The swimmers with the best combined time from each school will be crowned King and Queen of the Pool. In 2021, Katie Cross claimed the title of "Queen of the Pool" for the Mustangs, while Brian Wong won Cal Poly's "King of the Pool" for the second time. Both swimmers will look to defend their titles Friday.
Cal, a perennial power in the pool, captured its seventh NCAA Swimming and Diving Championship on the men's side a year ago, while the women took home eighth.
The Mustangs return 30 swimmers and divers from last year's squad — 18 on the women's side and 12 on the men's side. One of the most notable returnees for the Cal Poly men is junior Kieran McNulty, who won his second straight conference title in the 1650-yard freestyle at last year's MPSF Championships and holds school records in the 500 and 1000 free. He also finished second in the 500 free and sixth in the 200 free at the 2022 conference meet.
Wong, who took fifth in the 200 butterfly at last year's MPSF Championships, is back for his senior season with the Mustang men, along with junior Joshua Billotte, senior Ryan Iannaccone, junior Sean Keegan and senior Max Powell, who shattered the school record in the 1-meter dive last season.
For the women, seniors Kaia Anderson, who placed seventh in the 400 IM and eighth in the 1650 free at the 2022 MPSF Championships, Sophie Jackson, Samantha Rankin and Jacqueline Samaniego lead the list of key returners.
The Mustangs have 10 seniors this season across the men's and women's teams, but they possess plenty of inexperience with 26 freshmen on the roster — 17 men and nine women.
The 26 freshmen are part of a talented recruiting class, consisting of countless Junior Nationals qualifiers and several top-ranked prospects, put together by Yoshida.
There's no denying the potential of this freshman class, but Yoshida said there's still plenty of things they need to learn, particularly mentally, in order to be successful in and out of the pool at the Division I level.
"I have high expectations for a number of our freshmen to come in and be immediate contributors," Yoshida said, "... I'm confident in them and I think that we've got some pieces in place to keep them enthused, keep them healthy, keep them doing well in school and all that works together to help the team be the best it can be. If we get this group tuned up now, I think the future is very bright for what we can achieve in the long run."
After Friday's season-opener, the Mustangs head to rival UC Santa Barbara on Oct. 8 for their first dual before traveling to CSU Bakersfield on Oct. 14-15 for the Sprint Invitational and Roadrunner Invitational.
Cal Poly hosts the Pepperdine women's team on Saturday, Oct. 22 at 11 a.m. The program's annual Green vs. Gold meet is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 28 at 6 p.m., and the alumni meet will take place the following day at 3:30 p.m.
On Nov. 16-19, the Mustangs will get their first look at the new site of the MPSF Swimming Championships when they descend on St. George, Utah, for the Utah Tech Invitational. This summer, the MPSF announced the conference meet would be leaving California for the first time in its 13-year history and that Utah Tech's swim facility would host the 2023 MPSF Swimming Championships.
Cal Poly will participate in the UNLV Invitational Dec. 17-19 and hosts duals with CSU Bakersfield on Saturday, Jan. 7, and UC Santa Cruz on Saturday, Jan. 21 to wrap its 2022-23 home schedule. The Mustangs divers will compete in the Bruin Diving Invitational on Jan. 13-15 in LA.
The 2023 MPSF Swimming Championships are slated for Feb. 15-18 in St. George. Despite the move to Utah Tech for the swimming championships, the diving portion of the MPSF Championships will continue to be held at the Marguerite Aquatics Center in Mission Viejo. The Cal Poly men's team placed fifth overall at last year's MPSF Championships, while the women took home seventh.
The NCAA Zone E Diving Championships are scheduled for March 6-9 in Federal Way, Washington. University of Tennessee hosts the 2023 NCAA Women's Swimming & Diving Championships on March 15-18, while the 2023 NCAA Men's Swimming & Diving Championships are set for March 22-25 at the University of Minnesota.
The Mustangs' schedule this season is more extensive than in years past and Yoshida believes the extra competition will allow the team to get stronger across the board.
"I felt it was important that we had a competition-heavy schedule that allowed us to travel a little bit, which is good for building team camaraderie, but also puts us up against teams in our conference," he said.
The more they race, the more they put themselves in those pressure situations … and I think were set up for a good season with that."
Players Mentioned
