Cal Women Sweep Relays on Night One at Pac 12 Championships

200 Medley Relay

Cal’s Cindy Tran was both the best 50 backstroker in the country and 100 backstroker in the country last seaosn. Based on early returns from the Pac 12 Championship meet, she’s poised to even blow away those lofty expectations this season. She split a 23.99 in the 50 back on a leadoff leg of Cal’s medley relay, which is the fastest split we’ve seen since World Record holder Gemma Spofforth graduated from Florida.

Colleen Fotsch also held up a great butterfly leg of 23.05,Liv Jensen anchored in a blazing 21.5, and the Golden Bears won the relay in 1:36.77. Melissa Bates struggled on the breaststroke leg to a 28.14 (Yvette Kong was faster on the B), but Cal was biding their efforts. Caitlin Leverenz didn’t swim on either relay on the first day of competition, and she’ll likely rejoin this 200 medley at NCAA’s.

Stanford took 2nd in 1:36.90. They too got a good anchor – theirs from Betsy Webb in 21.72. Freshman breaststroker Katie Olsen, who missed the first half of this season, swam an encouraging, though not spectacular, 27.64 split for the Cardinal.

Arizona placed 3rd in 1:37.33. That’s slower than they were at the Texas Invite in Decemper, and is a sign that Arizona, even under the direction of a new coach, is sticking with their old plans of putting little-to-no focus on the conference championship meet (though this swim is still better than their DQ from last year). Margo Geer is already revved up despite, with an anchor split of 21.47 in the 50 free.

Arizona State, another team that DQ’ed this relay last season, was 4th in 1:37.63. They have an awesome short-axis combo of Rebecca Ejdervik on the breaststroke (26.65) and Caroline Kuczynski on the butterfly (23.48).

USC saw just how badly they’d miss their two graduating swimmers, Lyndsay Depaul and Presley Bard, in this relay. Even with defending National Swimmer of the Year Katinka Hosszu added to the relay (she wasn’t on the squad that placed 3rd at NCAA’s last year), the Trojans could muster only a 5th-place finish of 1:37.77. Hosszu’s split of 22.92 on the fly leg, however, will rival the split of anybody in the country.

800 Free Relay

Through the first weekend-plus of this year’s championship season, the 800 free relays nationwide have been pretty average. Georgia had a good swim at SEC’s, but outside of that nothing special has happened.

After this meet, however, the bar is significantly raised from last year in the race.

The Cal women graduated half of their relay from last year, but are already faster than they were at Nationals last year – and three-seconds better than last year’s Pac 10 Championship meet – with a winning time of 6:57.86. That’s the 2nd-best time in the country this year.

Freshman Catherine Breed was a big difference maker with a 2nd-leg split of 1:44.65. Senior Liv Jensen, best known as a sprinter, has made huge improvements in her longer 200 free. She split a 1:43.15 anchor.

This gives Cal coach Teri McKeever an interesting decision to make. Last year, Jensen swam 5 relays and only the two sprint freestyles as individuals at NCAA’s. After this time, however, she’s got top-5 200 free potential too. They don’t have a second sprinter anywhere near Jensen’s caliber, however, so it would be a gamble in relay points to drop her off of one (probably the 400 medley to be replaced by Isakovic makes the most sense).

Stanford took 2nd in 6:58.82, and the #3 position nationwide. That included a pair of 1:43’s (on rolling starts) from Maya DiRado and Andi Murez.

USC took 3rd in 7:01.76. Katinka Hosszu led off in 1:43.19.

Standings

1. Cal 128
2. Stanford 112
3. Arizona 104
3. Arizona State 104
3. USC 104
6. UCLA 96
7. Oregon State 90
8. Utah 88
9. Washington 86