By Braden Keith on SwimSwam
2026 Atlantic Coast Conference Championships
Dates: Diving: Sunday, February 15–Tuesday, February 17 Swimming: Tuesday, February 17–Saturday, February 21 Location: McAuley Aquatic Center, Atlanta, GA Defending champions: UVA women (6x); Cal men (1x) Live Video: ESPN+ ($) Schedule of Events (PDF) Championship Central Pre-Scratch Psych Sheet Live Results Live Recaps Prelims: Day 4|Day 5|Day 6|Day 7 Finals: Day 1|Day 2|Day 3|Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7The 2026 Cal men are not as strong at the top end, nor as deep as they once were, but ultimately class rises to the top, and the Golden Bears showed up biggest when it was most needed to win their 2nd ACC title in as many years in the conference.
They finished 78 points ahead of their closest competitors from Stanford, with their individual swimming scoring being the difference maker.
Final Scores Men
Team Total Individual Swim Points Relay Points Diving Points Individual Score Count Relay Score Count Diving Score Count 1 California 1154 766 280 108 39 5 6 2 Stanford 1076 681 265 130 40 5 7 3 NC State 973 735 238 0 34 4 0 4 Louisville 844 495 244 105 33 5 7 5 VA Tech 715.5 404.5 238 73 29 5 8 6 Florida St 624.5 262.5 272 90 21 5 8 7 Virginia 577.5 374.5 203 0 28 4 0 8 UNC 572.5 325.5 142 105 25 4 9 9 ND 488 257 166 65 21 4 4 10 SMU 407 121 190 96 15 5 6 11 PITT 401 144 214 43 11 5 4 12 GT 357 82 172 103 9 5 5 13 Miami 162 0 0 162 0 0 7 14 Duke 138 12 120 6 3 4 1 15 BC 112 0 112 0 0 4 0It was the newcomers who made the difference for Cal. Including Nathan Wiffen, who is probably in his only year of eligibility for Cal, the ‘freshman’ class scored 297 points for the Golden Bears. Not only was that the most by any ‘freshman’ class, it was the most of any Cal class. As the Golden Bears enter a rebuilding phase, their ‘class by class’ scoring is inverse.
Freshmen (including Wiffen) – 297 Sophomore – 189 Junior – 148 Senior – 140 5th Years – 100While Cal’s sprint group held their own without the talent they normally have, it’s the distance crew that carried the most weight for the Golden Bears. They only had one individual finish among the first 19 individual scorers at the meet – freshman Ryan Erisman, who finished 3rd in the 500 free (4:11.50), 2nd in the 400 IM (3:38.94), and 3rd in the 1650 free (14:37.58).
Wiffen added another 53 points with a 5th place finish in the 500 free and 2nd place finish in the 1650 free, while senior Eduardo Oliveira scored 44 points and freshman Norvy Clontz scored 22 points in that distance group as well.
It was scoring from a number of unusual places that carried Cal. They also picked up big scoring in the breaststroke races and from a resurgent 5th year Evan Petty who wasn’t even on the ACC Championship roster last season.
Cal’s Individual Scoring
Ryan Erisman, freshman – 82 points Yamato Okadome, sophomore – 64 points Josh Thai, senior – 63 points (diving) Evan Petty, 5th year – 56 points Keaton Jones, junior – 54 points Lucca Battaglini, sophomore – 53 points Freddy Klein, sophomore – 53 points Hank Rivers, senior – 50 points Casper Puggaard, freshman – 50 points Ian Platts-Mills, freshman – 48 points Humberto Najera, junior – 47 points Eduardo Oliveira, 5th year – 44 points Martin Wrede, freshman – 42 points Geoff Vavitsas, junior – 42 points (diving) Luca Gissendaner, senior – 27 points Norvy Clontz, freshman – 22 points Nans Mazellier, sophomore – 19 points Jack Clark, junior – 3 points (diving) Sam Quarles, junior – 2 points Kenny Barnicle, freshmanCal’s Yamato Okadome was named the 2026 ACC Most Valuable Men’s Swimmer of the Championships after winning the 100 and 200 breaststrokes and swimming the breaststroke leg of the winning 400 medley relay.
Those were three of Cal’s four event titles at the meet.
Cal’s ACC Titles
100 breaststroke – Yamato Okadome, sophomore – 50.32 200 breaststroke – Yamato Okadome, sophomore – 1:48.87 100 backstroke – Evan Petty, 5th year – 44.21 400 medley relay – Evan Petty, Yamato Okadome, Casper Puggaard, Martin Wrede – 3:0.74 (Meet Record)This is head coach Dave Durden’s 9th conference title with Cal. He won 7 Pac-12 titles before Cal joined the ACC, and have now won two straight in his new conference.
He becomes the 8th coach in ACC history to win multiple men’s titles outright and the 9th coach in ACC history to win multiple men’s titles including ties.
ACC Men’s Swimming & Diving Championships By Coach
Mark Bernardino, Virginia – 16 Don Easterling, NC State – 15 Frank Comfort, UNC – 10 Willis Case, NC State – 9 (1 tie, 2 tri-tie) Braden Holloway, NC State – 9 Bill Campbell, Maryland – 7 (1 tie, 2 tri-tie) Pat Earey, UNC – 5 (1 tie, 2 tri-tie) Ralph Casey, UNC – 2 (1 tie) Dave Durden, Cal – 2
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