The Cal women have been hit by the DQ bug early in this 2014 Pac-12 Championship meet, and the Stanford Cardinal have capitalized by building a 59-point lead after two days of competition.
In tonight’s finals, the stars will be out. In the 400 IM, it’s Gardell v. DiRado v. Li (USC’s MeghanHawthorne was a noted scratch in prelims). In the 100 fly it’s Lee v. Stewart v. Bootsma and all. The 200 free has Franklin, Neal, and Pelton. The 100 breast has Katie Olsen sitting as the surprising top seed ahead of Kasey Carlson. And the 100 back will be another Bootsma v. Lee v. Tran battle, with swimmers like Kendyl Stewart and Linnea Mack thrown in for good measure.
It should be a wild session with those races as well as the 400 medley relay. It should be wildest for UCLA’s Noelle Tarazona – after swimming the 400 IM and 100 fly back-to-back this morning, she had enough energy left to swim as part of a three-way 100 fly swimoff for 7th and return for both A finals tonight. She’s likely in UCLA’s 400 medley relay plans as well, which makes for a huge day by the Bruins’ junior.
Day 2 finals recap can be seen here.
Day 3 prelims recap can be seen here.
Refresh the page often, as we’ll be recapping the races as they happen.
Pac-12 Women
- Dates: Wednesday, February 26th – Saturday, March 1st; Prelims 11AM/Finals 6PM
- Location: Federal Way, WA (Central Time Zone)
- Defending Champion: Stanford (results)
- Live Results: Available.
- Live Video (If available):
- Championship Central
400 IM
Maya DiRado defended her 2013 400 IM PAC-12 title tonight, and doubled up in the IM wins this weekend, as she swum to victory with a 4:01.72.
There was some space between the top three are USC’s Stina Gardell was second at 4:04.27 and Cal’s Celina Li was third, 4:07.68. Kelly Naze, also of Cal, was fourth at 4:11.61.
The Arizona schools went 5-6 with Zona’s Tjasa Oder fifth, 4:13.115, and ASU’s Tristin Baxter sixth, 4:14.35. UCLA rounded out the top eight with Noelle Tarazona seventh and Lauren Baker eighth with times of 4:14.62 and 4:17.74.
Notably, USC’s Meghan Hawthorne was not in this event, where she finished fourth last season. She declared false start this morning in preliminaries due to a minor injury.
100 Butterfly
Felicia Lee followed DiRado’s lead notching another win for the Cardinal tonight. Lee won the event in 51.26, just a tenth ahead of Kendyl Stewart of USC. Stewart finished in 51.36.
Cal went 3-4 with Rachel Bootsma and Sophia Batchelor, at 52.06 and 52.15. Cal had another finalist with their teammate Cindy Tran finishing sixth, 52.41.
Ashley Evans was fifth for the Wildcats at 52.28.
UCLA rounded out the top eight, just like the 400 IM, finishing seventh and eighth with Noelle Tarazona and Ting Quah, 53.14 and 53.20; the two won the swim off earlier against Jasmine Tosky for spots in the final. Tarazona had a tough double, turning right around from the 400 IM final.
Freshman Farida Osman of Cal won the B final at 52.36.
200 Freestyle
Missy Franklin set her second individual record of the meet. She broke the PAC-12 Meet Record held by former Cal Bear Dana Vollmer in 2009. Franklin won the event in a time of 1:42.29.
The podium was all freshman with Franklin, but Stanford freshman Lia Neal and USC freshman Chelsea Chenault rounded out the top three. Neal’s final time was 1:43.62, and Chenault at 1:43.91.
The three of them should have some very great races in the next year all together at the conference and NCAA level, and beyond for the latter two in the collegiate careers.
The Bears also went 4-5-6 with Caroline Piehl, 1:44.48, Rachael Acker, 1:44.74, and Liz Pelton, 1:45.12. Those three and Franklin were all apart of the winning 800 freestyle relay on Wednesday night.
USC and Stanford both had a second swimmer each in the heat. Katarzyn Wilk was seventh, 1:45.43, and Julia Anderson was eighth, 1:45.66.
500 freestyle runner-up Bonnie Brandon won the B final for the Wildcats. Her final time was 1:44.30 – fourth overall best time of the night.
100 Breaststroke
Needing the points for the team battle, Katie Olsen turned up big in an event Cal had zero A finalists in. She won the third event of the night for the Cardinal. She finished in 59.17 to best Kasey Carlson of USC, 59.44.
Outside those two, the field was very tight, as the next five were not even separated by a full second. Arizona had two up with Eve Sarrish finishing third, 1:00.37, and Emma Schoettmer in fifth, 1:00.69.
Utah had a pair of A finalists in event. Nicole Ligeza lead the two Utes with a fourth place finish, 1:00.44, and Stina Colleou was back at sixth, 1:00.71.
Andrea Kropp was eighth for USC, 1:02.16.
100 Backstroke
Rachel Bootsma led a strong Cal showing in the 100 backstroke, with a winning time of 51.19. Stanford’s Lee and Cal’s Cindy Tran went 2-3, also under :52 seconds tonight, with times of 51.29 and 51.44.
These top three finishers all previously had swum the 100 butterfly not too long ago in the evening. The three all had great back-to-back swims, which is great training for NCAAs next month.
Cal also had the fourth and fifth spots in the final with Shun Au Hoi, 52.00, and Melanie Klaren, 52.06.
Kendyl Stewart also returned back to the pool after the 100 butterfly finals; she finished sixth overall in 53.09.
Utah’s Traycie Swartz was seventh, 53.37, and UCLA’s Linnea Mack was eighth, 53.83, to round out the top eight finalists.
Diving
USC got some big points as Haley Ishimatsu and Samantha Adams went 1-3 in the event. Stanford was second with Samantha Phipps, and also eighth with Alexandra Clay.
Cal, Arizona, UCLA and Utah all had a diver a piece in the finals.
400 Medley Relay
Cal battled it out with Stanford all the way to end, but got the edge in the final 100 yards to win 3:29.23 to 3:29.65.
Cindy Tran, 51.28, Celina Li, 59.68, Rachel Bootsma, 51.76, and Missy Franklin, 46.51, teamed up for the win tonight. Celina Li is yet another breaststroke option they have thrown onto the breaststroke leg, and that 59-split is exactly what they needed. Possibly with more rest and the NCAA atmosphere, Cal will get a 58 and feel much more comfortable ‘replacing’ the loss of Leverenz.
Stanford’s relay was made up by Maya DiRado, 52.39, Katie Olsen, 59.15, Felicia Lee, 51.24, and Lia Neal, 46.87.
Arizona was third, 3:32.21; USC was fourth, 3:33.02. Utah also had a very good relay, beating UCLA to finish 5th.
Team Scores
Cal was able to take over the lead tonight, regardless of the relay slip up from last night. Now they have about 50 points up on Stanford. Stanford is comfortably in second, 60+ points ahead of USC in third, who is also locked into that spot.
The battle for fourth is still very much alive. UCLA maintains the lead over Arizona, but by only five points. If UCLA can hold on, this will be their best PAC-12 finish in years.
1. University of California, Berk 1019.5
2. Stanford University 967
3. University of Southern Calif 896
4. University of CA – Los Angeles 619.5
5. Arizona, University of 614.5
6. Utah, University of 473
7. Arizona State University 299.5
8. Washington State University 262
9. Oregon State University 209
Wow – I didn’t even consider Celina Li for breaststroke on the relay.
Three incredible anchor legs from Franklin, Neal, and Geer.
Very impressive 3x swims by Lee, Bootsma, and Tran. Tran even improved in her relay swim.
It seems clear that that none of the big names (from any team) are very rested here, whereas UGA seemed pretty rested at SEC’s with lots of lifetime bests. NCAA’s will be insane. A&M, UGA, CAL, and Stanford could all break 3:28 in the medley relay.
Maya DiRado interview. She isn’t sure to continue swimming after next summer. 🙁
I hope she’ll continue and qualify for Rio.
http://pac-12.com/article/2014/02/28/stanford-swimmer-maya-dirado-reflects-career-contemplates-future
Cute pic
https://twitter.com/stanfordwswim/status/439643314246017024/photo/1/large
Cal day 3 recap
http://www.calbears.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=30100&ATCLID=209421734
Interesting day 3 and a pretty good day for Cal.… Read more »
Maya DiRado easily wins the 400 IM. 4.01 untapered is very promising. She’s ready for the clash with Miss Beisel next month.
Nothing to say about Missy. She made the job perfectly.
3 freshmen at the first 3 places in the 200 free. It must not be very usual. We knew it was a very special 2013 class.
New PR for Lia Neal in 1.43.62.
Liz Pelton doesn’t look as sharp as most of her colleagues. Only 1.45 for her. We’ll see her 200 back tomorrow.
I feel bad for Marina Garcia. 1.02 for a 100 breast world finalist last year in Barcelona. 🙄
Marina Garcia might be the worst LCM to SCY converter in a long time.
It could be she’s not used to the training here and is fatigued, as she had better time in the Fall swim at US Winter Nationals. Hopefully she will be better with taper for the NCAAs. Other factors could be adjusting to the school load at UC Berkeley adding to fatigue. Isakovic was silver medalist in the Olympics second only to Pellegrini, and in her Freshman year she didn’t dominate the 200 as I expected her to, but she got better and better in the following years.
All the studying and rigors of academia might have something more to do with it than converting to shorter pool….
True. The Spanish academic system is very different than the US system, and the workload at Cal is especially tough. Hopefully she regains her form as she adjusts to all the changes.
She was much slower at the last couple dual meets as well, compared to fall semester where she easily went 1:02 in dual meets, so illness or some similar issue might be at play.
I’ve seen this happen many times, mostly on the girl’s side. Could it be that the power and strength needed to excel around walls and underwater, and in sprint events, are easier to develop quickly, in the weight room, for men than for women?
The classroom excuse isn’t really fair, as the other PAC schools could say the same, minus a few notable exceptions. Now, there are schools where class is more or less optional, but most of them had their conference champs last week.
You know what’s not Elite? Disqualifying a relay. You know what is Elite? Scoring 619.5 points in one session. Mariana Garcia continues to struggle with the transition from meters to yards while Missy has no problem doing so lighting up the field with a 46.51 anchor leg. Margo Greer and Lia Neil also produce significant readings on Elite-O-Meter equipment with their anchor legs as well.
I like the cut of your jib. Keep us updated on the status of the day 4 Elite-O-Meter results(should be day 3, with Wednesday being day 0, but that’s another conversation).
Do you have readings on the coaches? Because I think we might have a new member of the elite women’s coaching fraternity(sorority?) from over on the farm. Stanford sure has been impressive taking on the Cal juggernaut.