Despite having just one swimmer take multiple events, the California Golden Bears women’s team took an easy 186.5-109.5 win over Pac-12 foes Utah in Salt Lake City. That final score included no exhibitions of mercy from the Cal women.
This was truly a team effort for the Cal women; as that team becomes deeper-and-deeper, these kind of meets emerge where no single swimmer is dominant, but even great athletes like Liz Pelton and Missy Franklin are battling within their own team for wins.
Missy Franklin was the swimmer who earned the double victories. She didn’t swim any relays, but had of the more substantial wins of the meet when she took the women’s 200 free in 1:48.92. Her teammate Caroline Piehl was 2nd in 1:51.90 and Camille Cheng was 3rd in 1:53.04 as part of a Cal 1-2-3. In Franklin’s second event, the 500 free, she won by a more narrow margin of 4:56.02 to 4:57.26 over freshman teammate Cierra Runge.
In Franklin’s 3rd event, one she and coach Teri McKeever have long hinted at her working on, she took 2nd in 2:04.50, behind Celina Li’s winning 2:03.94.
Aside from Franklin, notable winners for Cal include a 100 back win from junior backstroker, and Franklin’s fellow Olympian in 2012, Rachel Bootsma. She swam a 55.27 to beat-out Utah freshman Megan Kawaguchi in 56.07. That’s the second time already this season that Kawaguchi has been 56.0, which is within half-a-second of her lifetime best.
In the women’s 100 fly, Cal freshman Noemie Thomas won in 54.83, followed by Bootsma (56.40) and Pelton (56.81). Farida Osman was only 6th in that race in 57.21. That far from her best effort this season, by almost three seconds, but she swam better in the 50 free where she won in 23.74 ahead of Utah’s Madeline Jamora in 23.75.
Liz Pelton also had a solid 200 backstroke time of 2:00.94 – splitting 1:00.2/1:00.7.
The Utes, with a significant home-pool advantage given the relative altitude between Salt Lake City and Berkeley, plus some other challenges of the Utah pool, did put up a good fight in several races.
In the women’s 100 free, Utah senior Giuliana Gigliotti tied with Cal senior Camille Cheng for 1st place in the women’s 100 free in 52.00’s. That’s not a great result for the Cal sprint group (Rachael Acker took 3rd in 52.26), but it’s within range of what Cal was doing everywhere else. Also in that race, Utah’s Rhi Williams, who last year focused strictly on track, was a 53.02.
Utah sophomore Stina Colleou, an NCAA qualifier last year and the team’s best returning swimmer in terms of national-level impact, swept the breaststroke events with a 1:03.71 in the 100 and a 2:17.97 in the 200. In both races, she beat out Cal’s top breaststroker Marina Garcia (1:04.45/2:19.89).
Nobody should be concerned with slow times by Cal (or Utah) up at the Ute Natatorium. That is a notoriously slow tank (shallow, weird tile starting blocks), and if that’s not enough, it’s at altitude as well. IMO both teams performed well.
I’m not saying this because of the times at this specific meet, but over the past two years. I hate to be negative, but am I the only one that is starting to think that some big time Cal returning swimmers best swimming days are behind them? Bootsma, Pelton, Franklin, and Garcia specifically. I could list a few more, but these worry me the most.
Franklin did swim best times last year, but she never really rested for any SCY meets before last year at NCAAs. So, it’s entirely possible that she didn’t really drop any time. Similar to if Phelps finally rested fully for a SCY meet.
Pelton did break the NCAA record in the 200 back 2… Read more »
ouch I would call Maija Roses a good breaststroker so Marina Garcia isn’t the only one
GO BEARS!!
And she continues to swim the useless 500 free!? LOL.
Man, you beat me to this article. For someone who thinks that nobody cares about college swimming, you are quite dedicated. If one were to look at the the number of posts and the title of the articles that you’ve posted on, one would think that you are a hardcore Cal fan.
Both Teri and Missy probably know what they’re doing. I’m a total pedestrian when it comes to training, but I have faith in both of them and they do things with a purpose. Have some faith too! I know deep inside, you are a fan. Every swimmer can have ups and downs in his/her career. If there is a way for Cal football fans to stick around… Read more »
Times are very slow for the Cal big names. They must be very tired right now.