2014 Pac-12 Championships: Cal makes a run at day 3 prelims

  • Dates: Wednesday February 26th – Saturday March 1st; Prelims at 11AM, Finals 6PM
  • Location: Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center (Pacific Time Zone)
  • Defending Champion: Stanford (Results.)
  • Live Results: Available.
  • Live Video (If available):
  • Championship Central (sort of)

From our Conference Primer: The Pac-12 conference is absolutely loaded with female talent. There’s the star-studded California Golden Bears, likely the team to beat for the national title. There’s last year’s conference champs from Stanford, their own roster dotted with huge names and crazy talent. On top of that, there’s USC, who upset Cal in a big way in late January, Arizona and a rising young crew from UCLA. Though some of these teams might be focusing a little more forward, on the coming NCAA championships, conference rivalries still die hard, and for the most part, swimmers will be swimming hard to nab an invite to the national championships, making this an exciting conference showdown.

 400 IM

The top three teams saw their top swimmers engage in a sort of prelims dance to open the morning. The 400 IM is an event that almost necessitates some prelims coasting, and each team’s top IMer swam relaxed enough to finish well off their best, but still grab an inside lane for the final.

USC’s Stina Gardell leads the field at 4:09.87. 200 IM champ Maya DiRado is second with a 4:10.03, while her Cal counterpart Celina Li sits third in 4:12.55. Expect much faster tonight when the three go head-to-head-to-head with a team battle on the line. The 200 IM last night suggests none of these swimmers are fully primed to go, yet holding a bit back for NCAAs, so we might not see a sub-4-minute race like Elizabeth Beisel and Melanie Margalis put up at SECs a week ago, but it should still be an exciting showdown between some of the nation’s best.

Cal’s Kelly Naze did go a season-best, 4:12.84 good for fourth place. Some other teams snatched up the remaining finals spots, with UCLA’s Noelle Tarazona (4:14.68, fifth) and Lauren Baker (4:16.88) making up half that crew. Arizona’s Tjasa Oder was sixth and Arizona State’s Tristin Baxter eighth.

 100 Fly

Stanford’s Felicia Lee dropped a 51.58 to lead the field into tonight’s 100 fly final. That’s a lifetime-best by a solid .8 for the senior, and moves her up to 7th in the NCAA so far this year. Once again, she’s followed by representatives of the other two teams in contention for the conference title. USC’s Kendyl Stewart went 52.04 for second, with Cal’s Rachel Bootsma 52.29 for third.

Those two should both have the potential to join Lee in the 51s tonight, making this another solid race at the top.

Cal took the next two spots with freshman Sophia Batchelor (52.54) and senior Cindy Tran (52.63). Arizona’s Ashley Evans is the final swimmer locked into the A final at the moment, going 52.95 for sixth.

The prelims session will end with some drama, as a 3-way swim-off has been set up for 7th and 8th place. UCLA’s Noelle Tarazona and Ting Quah both went 52.97, as did USC Trojan Jasmine Tosky, meaning barring any unforeseen scratches, two swimmers will get in and one will slip to the B final where they’ll race Cal’s Farida Osman, who was just .01 away from making it a 4-way swim-off this morning.

Update: The UCLA gals have triumphed in the swim-off. Tarazona won in 52.71 and Quah was second with a 52.79. They’ll both swim in the A final while Tosky will head the B heat after going 52.94. Faster times for all three women in a tight swim-off.

200 Free

Cal freshman Missy Franklin is the top seed here, not a huge shock for the woman who holds the NCAA’s fastest time this season. She was 1:43.68 in the morning, a good two seconds off her best. She was quite a bit faster leading off the 800 free relay Wednesday night, and that was coming off anchoring the medley relay, so it’s certain Franklin can go faster tonight, but the question is if she’ll have to. Her Golden Bears hold the top 3 seeds in the event and Franklin is the clear favorite to win.

Caroline Piehl and Rachael Acker will try to hold onto second and third to complete the Cal sweep tonight; they were 1:44.07 and 1:44.43. USC’s Chelsea Chenault is breathing down their necks, though, with a 1:44.74. The freshman is having an outstanding season and was a big part of the Trojans’ big win over Cal a month or so ago. She’ll definitely factor in tonight.

Stanford put a pair of young swimmers into the A heat with Lia Neal (1:45.11) and Julia Anderson (1:45.36). Behind them are USC’s Katarzyna Wilk and Elizabeth Pelton, who snuck into the championship heat in the last qualifying spot.

100 Breast

Stanford’s Katie Olsen has come up big for the Cardinal several times already this year, and she’s put herself in position to do it again tonight. The junior holds the top 100 breast seed as the only swimmer under a minute in prelims. Her 59.89 is just off her lifetime-best and should give her a shot at the conference title.

USC’s Kasey Carlson was just over a minute at 1:00.02, and is a good bet to push Olsen tonight. Arizona placed two in the A final, Eve Sarris third (1:00.54) and Emma Schoettmer fifth (1:00.96). The event saw some new teams represented in the top 8 – Utah’s Nicole Ligeza sits fourth with a 1:00.59, and her teammate Stina Colleou is sixth.

Stanford’s Sarah Haase and USC’s Andrea Kropp rounded out an A final that features zero Cal Golden Bears. NCAAs is certainly a bigger focus rest-wise for Cal (like many of the other top teams here), but this event should do little to erase doubts about Cal’s hole in the breaststroke events. Yvette Kong was their top performer at 1:01.36 for 10th place; Melissa Bates was also 1:01 and Marina Garcia went 1:02 for the Bears.

100 Back

On the other hand, Cal’s dangerous backstroking squad should help cover for any adversity they face in breaststroke. The Golden Bears sit on 4 of the top 5 seeds in the 100 back, led by sophomore Olympian Rachel Bootsma. Her 51.61 is almost the perfect result for Cal – fast enough to show Bootsma is back after some late-season struggles, yet well-enough off her best to suggest she’s got plenty more in the tank for NCAAs. She’ll probably have to push things a bit more tonight as Stanford’s Felicia Lee is only two tenths back at 51.81.

The rest of the Cal juggernaut is Cindy Tran (52.17, third), Melanie Klaren (52.26, fourth), and Hoi Shun Au (52.74, fifth).

USC got one into the A final with Kendyl Stewart‘s 53.18. The fastest freshman in the field is UCLA’s Linnea Mack who sits seventh, and Utah’s Traycie Swartz rounds out the A final, nipping UCLA’s other freshman Madison White for 8th place.

 

Ups/Downs

This was a big day for Cal, who trail Stanford by 106.5 and USC by 47.5 after two days. The Golden Bears put 13 swimmers “up” (in the A final) and 9 swimmers “down” (in the B), the most in both categories, and almost double what Stanford and USC put in the A heat. UCLA also outdid Arizona this morning and should be in solid shape to hold onto third – they’re up by 8 at the moment.

Stanford 7up/8down
USC 7up/7down
Cal 13up/9down
UCLA 5up/3down
Arizona 4up/5down
Utah 3up/1down
Washington State 0up/3down
Arizona State 1up/4down

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Tommy Trojan
10 years ago

The recap as stated above are incorrect for 100 back. .

1-8 below:
1 Bootsma, Rachel SO CAL-PC 51.61 A
2 Lee, Felicia SR STAN-PC 51.81 A
3 Tran, Cindy SR CAL-PC 52.17 B
4 Klaren, Melanie JR CAL-PC 52.26 B
5 Franklin, Missy FR CAL-PC 52.26 B
6 Au, Hoi Shun SR CAL-PC 52.74 B
7 Stewart, Kendyl SO USC-CA 53.18 B
8 Mack, Linnea FR UCLA-CA 53.59 B

duckduckgoose
Reply to  Tommy Trojan
10 years ago

Franklin swam the 100 back as an exhibition.

Tommy Trojan
Reply to  duckduckgoose
10 years ago

You are correct, sir.. Just took note of that, myself. Too bad, would love to see her in the final. Maybe NCAA?

SWIMPHILE
Reply to  Tommy Trojan
10 years ago

Doubt that too as Cal will need her more in the 500/200/100 free @ NCAAs.

Maybe next year if incoming recruits like Cierra Runge can take some of the load from Franklin in the 500?

Still, would have loved to see both Franklin + Pelton in the 100 back tonight!

Check out this clip which shows Franklin dominating Bonnie Brandon in the 500y then she goes on to say such sweet things about Brandon & Chenault 😉 http://pac-12.com/videos/cals-missy-franklin-sets-pac-12-championships-500-freestyle-record

gosharks
10 years ago

Scoring of prelims (swimming only):

CAL: 495
USC: 317
STAN:311

Reply to  gosharks
10 years ago

Weaknesses Schmeaknesses.

When you are that deep and elite in 4 events… A soft 5th event won’t kill ya.

Hugo Miller
Reply to  Hulk Swim
10 years ago

hmmm… I guess that would be true if they didn’t have to face Georgia

usswimfan
Reply to  gosharks
10 years ago

I stand corrected…After looking at the diving results for places 9-24, Cal did enough to make the blow not as bad as I thought. Stanford and USC will clearly outscore them tonight (places 1-8) but as GOSHARKS highlight, the Bears should outscore their opponents in every event minus breaststroke. 200 Free gives Cal huge points and then you add the 100 back/fly and that’s the rationale.

Shogun
10 years ago

No Pelton in 100 back?

matthew
10 years ago

Boots is Back! can’t wait for the tonight

Floppy
10 years ago

USA Swimming seems to have started keeping records for 50 strokes in SCY, even though they aren’t competed very much.
The American Record is officially listed as Rachel Bootsma, at 23.73. I wonder if this can count?
http://www.usaswimming.org/_Rainbow/Documents/8e844fc3-4e90-470f-8733-06a0eece504a/girls_scy.pdf

liquidassets
Reply to  Floppy
10 years ago

Thanks Hugo. I think Tran’s 23.4 should count; assuming it was an official split.

Floppy
10 years ago

CINDY TRAN’S BUTTERFLY SPLITS:
r:+0.67 23.48 52.63 (29.15)

That’s insane! One of the fastest 50 flys we’ve ever seen.

liquidassets
10 years ago

Yeah Flea is continuing her great senior season, so glad to see her fully healthy and reaching her potential, and Bootsma appears to be starting to get back on track too just in time. Tough break for UCLA that Tarazona and Quah both have to expend energy in a swim-off. If it was only a two way swim off for 8th, they could pow-wow with their coach who could make an executive decision to avoid it, but since they need to race for 7th and 8th with a 3rd swimmer, they gotta go for it. Are the results of the swim-off available yet? My “Lo-TEK” “Real-Time” (not) results are not working–again!! thanks.

Hugo Miller
Reply to  liquidassets
10 years ago

Tarazona 52.71>Quah 52.79>Tosky 52.94 from Meet Mobile

usswimfan
10 years ago

Nice prelim swim by Felicia Lee- 51.58. Cal is making a move on USC but with diving I doubt they can catch Stanford.

About Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson swam for nearly twenty years. Then, Jared Anderson stopped swimming and started writing about swimming. He's not sick of swimming yet. Swimming might be sick of him, though. Jared was a YMCA and high school swimmer in northern Minnesota, and spent his college years swimming breaststroke and occasionally pretending …

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