Golden Nuggets: Robot Squirrels, April Fools' Day, and a whole lot of Broken School Records

Just another week around campus.

Hello and welcome to Golden Nuggets! In this weekly write up, we try our best to cover all things Cal, Berkeley, Bearkeley, UC Berkeley, University of Cal Berkeley, University of Berkeley at Cal, BerkeleyInspire, and California State University Berkeley that happened more or less in the last week! Let’s dig in!

Berkeley Squirrels, Now Even More Terrifying?

By now anyone that’s been on the internet in the last 15 years has seen the terrifying Boston Dymanics robots moving boxes, jumping on top of boxes, and hunting Sarah Connor. Well, a couple of Berkeley Engineers have topped that by…making a jumping squirrel robot?

Read more about the squirrels/robots here.

All Gold Everything

Ahhhh the sweet smell of Cal’s New Yellow Field! Cal Football announced a few changes yesterday at California Memorial Stadium, including the new yellow turf that will make it’s debut this coming Fall. I for one cannot wait until every single player looks like Mike Golic Jr. on Senior Day.

Elsewhere, Cal Band announced their full slate of shows next Fall.

I for one can’t wait until that PBS Kids Medley Show. Looking forward to a 30 Minute Loop of Jaydn Ott’s Neighborhood.

Remembering Reef

Write For California is looking back at our own beloved Reef. I can’t say that I met him other than on passing Twitter analysis, but from afar I could tell how much he loved Cal, and by extension this community. Now its our turn to honor Larry. Terrence Lau helped put this together yesterday as Larry’s family seeks to honor his life and continue to serve others far after it by encouraging people to not Drink and Drive. As of this writing, I believe the family has exceeded the fee for the sign they hope to put up in his honor, but is still looking for donations to put money in classrooms across the Bay. Read on below.

Hot Links

• Matt Hayes at USA Today wrote about Cal and Stanford getting serious about football with the hiring of respective General Managers. You can read about it here.

• The McDonald’s All-American Game is going on as I type this, but you can preview the game here (along with a good preview on incoming commit Aliyahna Morris)

• Kasia Pawlowska wrote about the Lawrence Berkeley Lab’s discovery of berkelocene in SFGATE

• Laura Ungar (AP News) wrote about some ongoing research at Berkeley that aims to create a brain-computer interface and is helping stroke victims speak again.

• Cal Baseball wants you to bring your dog to the game. Bark at the Park this Saturday!

Golden Bear Honors

• Goalkeeper Teagan Wy got called up to the US Women’s National Team Under 23 Camp

• Kim Song (Cheer), Casey Brown (Gymnastics), and Nadia Mejia were profiled for Women’s History Month

• Men’s Swim’s Seeliger, Okadome, Rose, and Alexy placed third at NCAA Championships and clocked a school record in the 200 Medley Relay

• Jack Alexy, Gariel Hett, Destin Lasco, and Lucas Henveaux broke the 800-Yard freestyle relate record and took first!

• Lucas Henveaux also set a school record in the 500 Freestyle in a Prelims Race

• Dare Rose set a school record in the 100-yard Butterfly during a Prelims race

• Cade Uluave got to ride a zamboni

• Aidan Li was named a regular season All-American on the Pommel Horse

• Jessie Rose was named a Scholar Athlete of the Week by Jam Bar

• Mya Lauzon added 4 more WCGTZ All-America Honors to her resume

• Maddie Williams was also named to the WCGA All-America Honors

• Justin Williams-Thomas was named Scholar-Athlete of the Week for the Football Team

Cal Athletics Recap

• Men’s Swimming and Diving placed 2nd in the NCAA Championships, finishing top two for the 15th consecutive year! (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4)

• Men’s Tennis beat Old Dominion, Boston College, and SMU

• Softball went 1-3 on the week, (16-2 against James Madison, 3-5, 1-2, 4-14 against Clemson)

• Men’s Golf competed at The Goodwin (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3)

• Track and Field competed at the 97th Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3)

• Women’s Golf competed at the PING/ASU Invitational (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3)

• Women’s Tennis beat Florida State and Miami

• Baseball went 1-2 against Louisville (10-11, 14-10, 6-13) and beat Sacramento State (6-5)

• Men’s and Women’s Rowing competed in the San Diego Crew Classic (Day 1, Day 2

• Women’s Water Polo beat Indiana and Michigan

• Lacrosse lost to Clemson

Cal Pros Recap

• Five Cal Baseball alums made Opening Day rosters including Lucas Erceg (Kansas City), Korey Lee (Chicago White Sox), Marcus Semien (Texas Rangers) and Andrew Vaughn (Chicago White Sox) along with SF Giants Manager Bob Melvin

• Alex Morgan announced the birth of her son Enzo Morgan

Next Week in Bear Territory

• Track and Field competes in the Brutus Hamilton Multi-Events Meet (4/3-4/5) and the Stanford Invitational (4/4)

• Beach Volleyball competes against Saint Mary’s and San Jose State (4/4), Pacific and USF (4/5)

• Women’s Gymnastics competes in the NCAA Regionals in Alabama (4/4)

• Women’s Tennis plays Duke (4/4) and North Carolina (4/5)

• Softball plays Nevada (4/4) and San Jose State (4/8)

• Men’s Tennis plays Duke (4/4) and North Carolina (4/6)

• Baseball starts a 3 game series against Clemson (4/4, 4/5, 4/6) and plays Pacific (4/7)

• Men’s Rowing competes against Wisconsin (4/5) and in the Cal/Stanford Invitational (4/6)

• Women’s Water Polo competes against Arizona State (4/5)

• Rugby begins the 2025 D1A National Collegiate Championships against Colorado State (4/5)

• Men’s Gymnastics competes in the MPSF Championships (4/5)

• Lacrosse competes against Syracuse (4/5)

• Women’s Golf competes in the Silverado Showdown (4/7-4/8)