After almost three weeks of uninterrupted training, the men’s swim team traveled to Cal for a scrimmage-like meet against rival California on Wednesday. If ever there was a “friendly competition” between Stanford and the Golden Bears, this meet might have been it.

Far from what one would call a conventional dual meet, the day consisted of six tri-distance categories of events, including butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, individual medley, short distance freestyle and long distance freestyle.

Cardinal swimmers won three of the six tri-distance categories. Distance standout senior Chad La Tourette won the 500 and 1000 freestyle to claim the overall tri-distance title. In the 1000 freestyle, La Tourette showed his continued dominance in endurance events with a comfortable seven-second victory over the rest of the field.

Likewise, veteran Bobby Bollier won the 100 and 200 butterfly for the overall butterfly title. Bollier finished third in the 50 fly, but the defending 200-meter butterfly national champion took control in the longer events.

Not to be outdone, freshman David Nolan swept the 100, 200, and 400 individual medleys to grab the tri-medley win. Nolan was the only swimmer, other than Cal’s Tom Shields, to win all his events. Cal was impressive in the backstroke events, with Shields and Mathias Gydesen going one-two in the overall category.

While this scrimmage may not have been considered one of the bigger competitions this season, it certainly gave the Cardinal swimmers a chance for some short-rest racing and a crucial preview of Cal, the defending NCAA Champion.

Stanford will see the Golden Bears at least three more times down the road this season — their next reunion will be in mid-February in a conference dual meet. The Pac-12 Championships will follow suit in late February. And if the two teams still don’t get enough of each other by then, they’ll duke it out at the NCAAs in March.