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Kelsey Zhang from Saratoga, California, has announced her intention to make 60-miles move up I-880 to the University of California, Berkeley, to swim and study in the Golden Bears’ class of 2030.
“I am so thrilled to announce my verbal commitment to pursue my academic and athletic career at the University of California, Berkeley! I want to thank my friends and family for their endless support throughout this journey, and my coaches at @paloaltostanfordaquatics for helping me get to where I am today. I also want to give a special thank you to Coach Dave for making this a dream come true. I am so honored to be able to start this new chapter of my life with such an amazing team; GO BEARS!! 💛🐻💙”
Zhang is a junior at Saratoga High School. She swims year-round with Palo Alto Stanford Aquatics and is a member of the U.S. National Junior Team for 2024-25. We ranked her #5 on our Way Too Early list of top recruits from the high school class of 2026.
In high school swimming, Zhang made a splash from day 1. As a freshman, she won the 200 IM (1:59.03, a PB) and 100 fly (52.62) at the 2023 CIF Central Coast Championships before going on to the California State Meet, where she won the 100 fly (52.94) and placed 3rd in the 200 IM (1:59.56). In 2024, she won the 100 fly (52.14) and was DQd in the final of the 200 IM, for which she had qualified 1st by 2.75 seconds with a prelims swim of 1:59.05.
Zhang is the top 200 butterflyer in the cohort – by a long shot. She came in 3rd in both the 100/200 fly at Winter Juniors West last December, leaving the meet with new PBs in the 50 back (25.01), 100 back (54.10), and 100 fly (52.18). She lowered her best time in the 100 fly to 52.08 in February at the President’s Day Senior Classic Meet in San Diego. There, she won the 50 free (23.11), 1000 free (9:48.63), 100 breast (1:01.85), 100 fly, and 200 fly (1:55.82), clocking PBs in all but the 200 fly. That PB (1:53.51) came in April at Far Westerns, where she also lowered her 200 IM time to 1:57.26.
In long course season, she swam both the 100 fly and 200 fly at U.S. Olympic Team Trials, and while she didn’t final, she did earn a new lifetime best in the latter (2:11.95). Zhang represented Team USA at the 2024 Junior Pan Pacific Championships, a month after running the table at Sacramento Futures. At that meet, she won the 100 fly (1:00.53), 200 fly (2:11.06, new PB), 200 IM (2:16.83), and 400 IM (4:48.82, a PB).
Best SCY times:
- 200 fly – 1:53.51 (best in class)
- 100 fly – 52.08
- 200 IM – 1:57.26
- 200 free – 1:48.38
- 100 back – 54.10
- 100 breast – 1:01.85
- 500 free – 4:48.16
- 100 free – 50.46
- 50 free – 23.11
Zhang will have an immediate impact on the Golden Bears’ roster. Her 200 fly time would already score at NCAAs and her 200 IM and 100 fly time are just shy of the 2024 invite cutoff. She is also a 1:01 100 breaststroker and her freestyle times could land her spots on several relays. She will join “Best of the Rest” recruit Isabel Wolk at Cal in the fall of 2026.
Zhang has apparently been considering Cal for quite some time, as she posted the following photo on her Instagram announcement post with Cal great Kathleen Baker, fulfilling a prophecy of sorts.
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So does PASA train at Stanford? How much interaction do they get with the actual Stanford team if they do?
They do not train at Stanford
PASA is basically just a collective of a handful of teams in the area and one of them used to train on Stanford’s campus (PASA-Cardinal), but they’ve since then disbanded and like merged with Stanford to form Alto Swim Club, which is now the club that a bunch of Stanford swimmers swim under when competing non-collegiately — swimmers like Aurora Roghair, Lucy Bell, Caroline Bricker etc swam under Alto at Trials
Closest actual PASA team to Stanford now is Rinconada, which is like 1 miles from the edge of campus
She could have done so much better. 🙁
Congrats Kelsey! Looking forward to seeing you swim at Spieker in a few years
Great Job!
That photo with Baker is adorable
The kindness of our stars can go a long way with young swimmers.
Congratulations!
little surprised that it’s not Stanford given she’s at PASA, although maybe that is just too close to home. Berkeley sounds like it just far enough away to feel like a move, while still having tons of people from back home since it is the main local state school
In an era where Stanford and Cal are in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Cal and Stanford are essentially in the same place.
From the east coast yeah, pretty big difference from Saratoga though
Stanford may also be much more expensive than Cal
You’re right in a literal sense. But she’s #5 in the entire country . . . I don’t think she’s paying for either school.