PASADENA, Calif. — The Caltech men's swim & dive team posted another excellent campaign in 2023-24, breaking eight school records and finishing with 54 program top-10 times or scores en route to its third straight top-4 performance at the SCIAC Championships.

Additionally, the squad achieved six dual meet victories, with one over Division II opponent Biola University and five over interconference foes. The Beavers also won the four-team Caltech Invite in November.

It's an impressive slew of accomplishments for a program who also earned the highest grade-point average among all swim & dive programs in the nation – not just in Div. III, but across all divisions. The group received Fall Scholar All-America distinction for its academic excellence.

At the end of the year, five Beavers received All-SCIAC honors with one student-athlete receiving the conference Character Award and the Caltech Athletics Director's Award.

It all began back in fall, with the team first taking on competition in a Oct. 21 tri-meet against California Baptist University and Pomona-Pitzer Colleges.

Talented rookie Marcel Liu (Natick, Mass. / Phillips Academy) showed off his training in his first-ever collegiate meet, taking on the 100-yard butterfly and tapping the wall at 50.15 seconds. The time tied for No. 2 all-time on the program record boards; he went on to smash the record in the new year. Another strong performance came from junior Evan Zhang (Great Falls, Va. / Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology), who won the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 56.78 seconds – just .18 off from his personal record.

Caltech continued training hard before coming up with a pair of wins as they took on their Oct. 28 home opener. The Beavers edged out Biola, 152-142, and toppled Occidental College, 210-77.

The Caltech swimmers posted numerous quick early-season times, including one from the 200-yard Medley Relay, where Liu, Zhang, senior Leo Yang (Blacksburg, Va. / Blacksburg) and rookie Jeffrey Zhou (Grand Rapids, Mich. / Northern) posted a 1:33.73 first-place time, ranking eighth in program history at the time.

The Beavers put in an all-around strong performance at the Caltech Invite in late November, grabbing first place overall over Oxy, Cal Lutheran University and the University of Redlands. The Institute scored 1104 total points while the next highest-scoring team scored 660.

Action began with sophomore Aaban Syed (Laurel, Md. / North County) skyrocketing himself up to No. 5 all-time in program history in the 3-meter dive with an 11-dive score of 372.00. He continued his strong weekend in the 1-meter, earning an 11-dive score of 407.35 to earn second in the event and No. 4 all-time on the Caltech top-10 record sheet.

The very first swimming event of the weekend was a historic one as it brought a new school record. Sophomore Simon Hu (Clarksville, Md. / River Hill) along with Zhang, Liu and Yang swam a brilliant 400-medley relay, collecting a time of 3:21.64 and winning the race in the process.

Liu went on to etch his name in the history books yet again as he swam a 49.19 across 100 meters for the butterfly to take the school record. He made it three school records in one weekend while Zhang collected his second as the duo joined Leo Jankovic (Opatija, Croatia / Gimnazija Andrije Mohorovicica) and Cai later for a school-record showing in the 200-yard medley event (1:31.26).

It was a strong end to 2023 for the Beavers, who picked up right where they left off in 2024 as they beat Redlands and Cal Lutheran in a Jan. 6 tri-meet on the road. The Beavers beat the Bulldogs on their home turf, 179-105, and did just enough to edge out the Regals, 156-124.

Syed continued his strong season as he won the 1-meter dive and nabbed the NCAA Regional cut with a score of 298.65; the Beavers saw several individual wins in the swimming events, including one from Zhang in the 100 Breast (57.38) and another from Yang in the 100 Free (47.60). Sophomore Siddhartha Ohja (Lake Forest, Ill. / Lake Forest) took first in the 100-yard butterfly (52.39).

Caltech also saw relay wins in the 200-yard medley and 200-yard freestyle relay, with Zhang helping lead the squad in both. For his three wins, the junior was awarded SCIAC Men's Swimmer of the Week.

The team honored its seniors one week later as they hosted a Senior Day dual meet for their final home contest of 2023-24. It was another superb performance from Caltech, who topped the Whittier College Poets by a score of 207.5 to 55.5.

The meet featured many excellent performances, but perhaps none greater than that of Zhang in the 50-yard freestyle; the standout swam a blazing time of 20.63 seconds to set a new school record, beating out the previous highest mark by .01 seconds and collecting the second-fastest time in the conference at the time. The Beaver went on to win the 100-yard butterfly and help the squad to 200 Medley and 400 Free relay wins; he won SCIAC Men's Swimmer of the Week for the second straight week.

The team picked up several more all-time top-10 times in their penultimate regular season meet and one school record in their final one as they defeated the University of La Verne, 189-72, before turning full attention towards the SCIAC Championships. There, the squad scored 423 points to earn them fourth place in the conference; this achievement came with seven new school records set.

The Beavers saw history in the 200 Medley relay as Hu, Cai, Liu and Zhang beat the program record from the Caltech Invite earlier in the season. The four swimmers connected for a time of 1:30.80.

Liu went on to beat his own school record as he swam the 100-yard butterfly, beating his own school record with a time of 48.73 to beat out all 42 competitors in the conference. The talented newcomer earned the bronze medal in the finals.

The Beavers also earned major team points by route of a bronze-medal finish in the men's 800-yard freestyle, which saw four Caltech athletes nab a lightning-fast time. Rookie Zachary Pestrikov (Rye, N.Y. / Iona Prepatory), Yang, Hu and Keskin combined for a time of 6:46.96, earning them third place overall out of 17 groups. With the time, the four swimmers move into No. 3 all-time in Caltech 800 Free history.

The four Beavers and Liu collected All-SCIAC honors for their top-3 performances.

Not to be held to just two program records, Liu achieved yet another Caltech best in the 100-yard backstroke, first breaking the 2018 record in the preliminaries with a 51.39 finish, and then breaking his own record by a hundredth of a second in the A Final for a new Beaver all-time record of 51.38.

Zhang beat his own school record as he took on the 50-yard Free; the sprinter swam 20.61 seconds to top his own time of 20.63. The junior finished with the fourth-fastest time in the prelims before grabbing fourth in the finals (20.63). The junior returned to the pool for the 200-yard freestyle relay where he joined forces with junior Sam Small (Ringwood, U.K. / Ringwood), Yang and senior Lucas Abounader (Austin, Texas / Liberal Arts and Sciences Academy) for a school-record time of 1:22.62 and a fourth place finish.

Senior Andrew Pasco (Haddonfield, N.J. / Bishop Eustace Prep) also cemented his name in the record books as he set the new Caltech record in the men's 200-yard IM (1:51.92). He continued his dominance as he broke the program record in the 400-yard IM, swimming a 4:01.11 in the prelims to down his own school record of 4:03.78. The standout earned the third-fastest time in prelims and was sixth in the finals.

Pasco did go home with hardware in the form of the SCIAC Swimming & Diving Character Award plaque, which he received, among many things, for exemplifying success in the pool and in the classroom as well as involvement in community and school service.

He also collected the Director's Award at the 2024 Caltech Student-Athlete Celebration, presented to a senior who has participated in athletics for at least two years and have made the most outstanding contribution to intercollegiate athletics as a whole during their Beaver career.

Pasco and Abounader each graduate Caltech with prestigious scholarships; Pasco was awarded the Schilt Studentship for United States Students at Trinity College, Cambridge while Abounader earned the Fulbright scholarship for the 2024-25 and will pursue graduate school at the University of Padova.

Brabson will lose a total of five seniors to graduation, though he returns a host of returners in addition to an excellent incoming class. Stay tuned for an official schedule release later this summer.

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